Repubs (linked to DeLay, Abramoff) say they didn't block fed probe

[ProSense]

Posted on Mon, Jan. 09, 2006

Pombo defends himself over reports on FDIC probe, Abramoff case
ERICA WERNER
Associated Press

WASHINGTON - House Resources Committee Chairman Richard Pombo said Monday he and other congressmen weren't attempting to block a federal investigation of a prominent Texas political contributor, but were trying instead to keep a government agency from wrongly seizing the man's property.

At issue were attempts by the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. to recover $300 million from Houston millionaire Charles Hurwitz for his role in the 1988 collapse of United Savings Association of Texas, which cost taxpayers $1.6 billion.

A report in Sunday's Los Angeles Times said Pombo, R-Calif.; Rep. John Doolittle, R-Calif.; and Rep. Tom DeLay, R-Texas, sought to stop the case.
DeLay denounced the investigation in a letter to the FDIC chairman in 1999. Pombo and Doolittle subpoenaed the agency's records on the case and in 2001 inserted some of the documents into the Congressional Record where they were accessible to Hurwitz's lawyers.

Soon after the FDIC dropped its case against Hurwitz, a generous donor to DeLay who also gave some $7,000 to Doolittle and $1,000 to Pombo's 1996 re-election campaign.

more...

http://www.montereyherald.com/mld/montereyherald/news/13587100.htm

[roguevalley]

1. LIAR! LIAR! PANTS ON FIRE! SHAME! SHAME! WE KNOW YOUR

NAME! I just had to put that in there for my mom. :+

[kenny blankenship]

2. yeah the spin gets so fast it appears motionless sometimes.

Have they spun the Republican bribery scandal into a Democrat-scandal of Abramoff-related-money?
I know they're working on it and the backend is surely in place too: when Republican Congressmen start going to jail it will become known as the Democrat-led witchhunt and showtrials of the virtuous Republicans, who didn't do anything wrong or at least nothing the Democrats didn't do too, or wouldn't have done if someone had just offered the money to them instead of the Republicans.
Wolf Blitzer: Is all this just because the Republicans held power and so they got approached for bribes?
Joe Di Genovese: Oh Wolf UNQUESTIONABLY! Look even to ask the question without explaining to viewers that the answer is YES is liberal media bias against Republicans.
Wolf Blitzer: Well thanks for setting me and the audience straight Joe, and we'll have to leave it there as we're now out of time.

I'm just waiting for the spinoffs. How long do you suppose it will be before Michelle Malkin tries to use the Abramoff/casino bribery scandal to make the case that the United States should have exterminated the Indians back when we had a chance?

[ProSense]

3. Lobbying giant is scandal casualty (they all should be indicted)

Lobbying giant is scandal casualty
Abramoff, DeLay publicity blamed as firm closes

By Jeffrey H. Birnbaum and James V. Grimaldi
The Washington Post
Updated: 11:16 p.m. ET Jan. 9, 2006


One of Washington's top lobbying operations will shut down at the end of the month because of its ties to disgraced lobbyist Jack Abramoff and former House majority leader Tom DeLay.


snip...

"Reports in the press have made it difficult to continue as a lobbying/political entity," Buckham said.

Buckham's firm employed DeLay's wife, Christine, for four years. It also benefited by working closely with Abramoff. Abramoff's plea agreement mentioned his close ties to Tony C. Rudy, one of Buckham's colleagues at ASG, identified in the court papers as "Staffer A."

Rudy, a former DeLay aide, worked for Abramoff before joining ASG. According to the plea document, a political consulting firm run by Rudy's wife allegedly received $50,000 in exchange for official actions Rudy took while working for DeLay.


Snip...

Financial disclosure forms show that ASG employed Christine DeLay from 1998 to 2002. Lobby filings also show that Buckham hired Julie Doolittle, wife of Rep. John T. Doolittle (R-Calif.), to do bookkeeping for a nonprofit group he created called the Korea-U.S. Exchange Council. A year ago, Julie Doolittle and her firm received a subpoena from the grand jury investigating Abramoff, according to her lawyer.


http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/10767793/from/RSS/