Abramoff, Norquist, Scaife and company: one big happy family

By Lee Russ

Thursday, June 22, 2006 at 02:47 PM

Using a Raw Story link, I got to this file of PDF docs of Abramoff-related e-mails that the Indian Affairs Cmtee obtained.

What a surpise.  On page 12 of the PDF file is a series of August 1999 e-mail exchanges concerning what non-profits Richard Scaife was willing to give money to.  Abramoff asks Ed Buckham+++ for a list of organizations and people that should be at a meeting when Scaife's people come to town.  Buckham supplies these:

+++Buckham was formerly DeLay's Chief of Staff.  He's also an Evangelical Minister (truly DeLay's kind of guy; religious, no ethics, loves money and power).

--Curt Anderson with RMIC [Republican Majority Issues Committee], noting that "without help and this group we will probably lose the majority" [RMIC was started by Buckham]

--Bob Mills with US Family Network (noting that this is DeLay's "favorite c4" which is in a half million $ campaign to defeat prescription drug coverage plan) [USFN was founded by Buckham; Wikipedia says it was housed in the same building as Buckham's consulting firm Alexander Strategy Group and Tom DeLay's political action committee Americans for a Republican Majority (ARMPAC); it is now out of business]

--Jim Ellis of Americans for Economic Growth, said to be DeLay's 3d favorite c4, which is pushing tax cuts and energy deregulation [Ellis also headed ARMPAC, DeLay's political action committee]

--Grover Norquist of Americans for Tax Reform, which is "helping our tax cut strategy with White House" [Norquist is the jackass behind the "tax pledge" and appears to be nose deep in the Abramoff crap]

--Toward Tradition, of which Buckham says "you know who should be there and why" [this is a Daniel Lapin group supposedly fighting against those who are anti-religion]

So DeLay's former chief follows his Evangelical calling to make big bucks, joins with Abramoff to start a whole series of "non profits" (a misnomer if ever there was one with these clowns involved), which Richard Mellon Scaife apparently funded at least in part, and which made frequent use of Grover Norquist, Ralph Reed, the office of the Department of the Interior, Bob Ney, Tom DeLay et al.

Who said there was a right wing conspiracy?  That's malicious gossip, no more than a politically motivated smear.  It's not a Right Wing Conspiracy, fool!

It's a Right Wing Criminal Conspiracy.

If Norquist and all the others legally responsible for the IRS filings for these non profits avoid conviction for tax fraud, there's something so rotten in Denmark that you can smell it standing in the middle of the Fulton Fish Market.