This morning, we looked at donations by Jack Abramoff to Virginia's junior Senator, George Allen (R). Today, we focus on contributions made by Abramoff and his associates to other prominent Virginia politicians.According to the Federal Election Commission (FEC), Jack Abramoff has been very generous to Virginia Republicans. Aside from the $1,000 he gave to George Allen on 4/28/00, Abramoff also gave to a couple of leading Virginia Republican Congressmen:
*Eric Cantor (R-7th District) received $1,000 on 5/08/01, $1,000 on 7/29/02, and $4,000 (in two separate, $2,000 contributions) on 3/19/03.
*Tom Davis (R-11th District) received $500 on 3/31/00.
In addition, large sums of money also came from Abramoff's former employer, Greenberg Traurig, one of the top lobbying firms in the nation according to Fortune Magazine. (NOTE: Abramoff was Senior Director of Government Affairs at Greenberg Traurig until March 2004, when he was pressured to leave.)
*Eric Cantor received $1,000 on 5/30/01, $1,000 on 9/17/02, and $1,000 on 2/11/03 from the Greenberg Traurig Political Action Committee (PAC).
*Tom Davis received $1,500 on 5/3/05 from the PAC (Note: This contribution came AFTER Abramoff left the firm. However, according to Legal Times, "Greenberg may not have an easy time distancing itself from the scandal and avoiding possible liability by painting itself as an unwitting victim of an errant employee.")
*Virgil Goode (R-5th District) received $1,000 on 4/24/02 from the PAC. [Note: For MUCH more on Virgil Goode, see Joshua Micah Marshall and Waldo Jaquith. Also, search for "Goode" right here. This one is REALLY slimy!]
*Randy Forbes (R-4th District) received $500 on 6/17/98 and $1,000 on 4/24/02 from the PAC.
*James Hyland (Republican candidate for the Virginia House of Delegates from the 35th District) received $5,000 from the PAC on 6/9/05. (Note: This also took place after Abramoff left the firm. See note above.)
*Bill Janis (Republican Delegate from Virginia's 56th House district), received $500 on 6/10/03.
Meanwhile, Abramoff co-conspirator Michael Scanlon was busy as well, giving:
*$50,000 to the National Republican Congressional Committee (NRCC) on 11/30/01. According to VPAP, the NRCC has given Virginia Republicans $4,353,364 over the past 8 years. (Notice how this money oozed its way around from Abramoff? This guy may have been an amoral sociopath, but he sure wasn't stupid!)
And another Abramoff associate, Adam Kidan, was doing his part to help out, giving:
*$1,000 to Tom Davis on 9/9/97 and another $250 on 12/17/97.
*Kidan received $1,250 back from Tom Davis on 9/23/05, after he was indicted on August 11, 2005.
Yet ANOTHER Abramoff associate, Tony Rudy, gave $750 to VA State Senator Ken Cuccinelli (R-37th District), $1,050 to VA Delegate Jeff Frederick (R-52nd District), and $250 to James Kaplan (R-ran for HoD from the 37th District but lost in the June 2005 primary to John Mason). Rudy was part of the Alexander Strategy Group, a lobbying and consulting firm run by former senior aides to DeLay, and with which "Abramoff shared some of his high-paying clients," according to the Washington Post.
Finally, indicted Abramoff associate, David Hossein Safavian ("worked with [Abramoff] while lobbying at Preston Gates & Ellis. There [Abramoff and he] brought in millions to the firm while working on the Mississippi Choctaw tribal account") was active as well, giving:
*Tom Davis $500 on 5/18/05 (returned after Safavian's indictment).
Now this one gets REALLY interesting, as David Safavian's wife Jennifer was the Chief Counsel for Oversight and Investigations (how appropriate!) on the House of Representatives Committee on Government Reform of which Tom Davis was (and continues to be) Chairman. Can we say "fox guarding the chicken coop?"
Oh, by the way, according to the Washington Post, Safavian lobbied on behalf of:
...local Muslim leader Abdurahman Alamoudi, who in October 2000 made widely publicized comments supporting Hezbollah and the Islamic Resistance Movement, or Hamas, at a rally in Lafayette Park.
Not only that, but:
Lobby disclosure forms originally filed by Safavian's firm, Janus-Merritt Strategies, show that it represented Alamoudi...[who] has since been convicted and imprisoned for accepting money from the Libyan government as part of an alleged plot to assassinate the crown prince of Saudi Arabia.
Lovely, huh? Sad to say, all this is just a quick snapshot of the sleaze and slime that surrounds several prominent Virginia Republican politicians. I'm sure there's a lot more where this came from, a job for investigators, journalists, and even intrepid bloggers to determine.
In the meantime, I call on all of the politicians mentioned above to return the money (if they haven't done so already) they received from Jack Abramoff, his former law firm, or one of Abramoff's many cronies and shell organizations. I also call on them to support strict lobbying reform, to prevent another Jack Abramoff situation from ever happening again. Finally, if they are indicted, I call on them to resign just like Randy "Duke" Cunningham did yesterday.