Abramoff--Very Bush in the Worst Sense

By Lee Russ

Tuesday, August 09, 2005 at 05:29 PM

I just found a news report detailing that Jack Abramoff's "lobbying" efforts in the territory of Guam resulted in an investigation against him in 2002, but--surprise--our illustrious president managed to get the investigator demoted and the whole investigation foundered.

According to the LA Times, Guam "investigators were looking into Abramoff's secret arrangement with Superior Court officials there to lobby against a court reform bill then pending in Congress. The legislation, since approved, gave the Guam Supreme Court authority over the Superior Court."  The full LA Times story is here: http://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/politics/la-na-guam7aug07,1,334899.story?coll=la-news-politi cs-national

According to the story, a grand jury subpoena was issued Nov. 18, 2002, demanding that Anthony Sanchez, administrative director of the Guam Superior Court, turn over all records involving the lobbying contract, including bills and payments. "A day later, the chief prosecutor, US Attorney Frederick A. Black, who had launched the investigation, was demoted. A White House news release announced that Bush was replacing Black."

So now we have Abramoff, very closely tied to both Tom DeLay and Grover Norquist: (1) under investigation in the US for his dealings with Indian tribes, (2) suspected of shady dealings in lobbying in the US to keep the Mariana Islands exempt from US labor laws while still able to claim that good manufactured there were "made in America," and (3) escaping a threatening investigation by direct intervention of Mr. Bush.

Could there be anything more "made in America" than Abramoff and his tale of sleaze among the highest powers of the nation?

Could this revelation begin an investigation of how Bush came to demote the Guam investigator?

Could this end up closer to the seat of power than the Plame investigation?

A Washington ethics watchdog group (Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington, or CREW) sent a letter to Department of Justice Inspector General Glenn Fine asking for an investigation into the demotion of the Guam investigator. See http://releases.usnewswire.com/GetRelease.asp?id=51441