printer friendly version
Opinion: Indian 'conservatives' pay to meet Bush
Tuesday, June 7, 2005
"A jaw-dropping article in The Texas Observer (www.texasobserver.org) shows that two lobbying clients of Jack Abramoff paid $25,000 to Grover Norquist's group for a lunch date and meeting with President George W. Bush in May 2001. Abramoff brought the Indian chiefs to the White house at the request of Norquist, a leading 'movement conservative' in Washington. In addition, Abramoff obtained $2.5 million in contributions from the Indians for a nonprofit foundation run by his wife and himself.
The White House guests were the chiefs of two of the six casino-rich Indian tribes represented by Abramoff and his partner Michael Scanlon, former top aide to House Majority Whip Tom DeLay. The $25,000 check from the Coushatta tribe of Louisiana is made out to Americans for Tax Reform, an anti-tax group founded and directed by Norquist.
Norquist, Abramoff and Karl Rove have worked together for 30 years, since they were national leaders of the College Republicans. Norquist, DeLay and Abramoff are all key players in the "the K Street Project" to turn the Washington lobby corps into an arm of the Republican Party."
Get the Story:
Molly Ivins: Indians pay conservative lobbists to meet with Bush
(The Free Press 6/7)
Related Stories:
Lobbying Report: The revolving door in
Washington (6/6)
Trail of gambling cash leads to Republicans,
even Bush (6/3)
Miss Choctaws say gaming
cash not used to lobby (5/31)
Gaming
leads to new concerns about lobbyists (05/26)
Editorial: Congress should look at all lobbyist
cash (05/26)
Column: Some questions
Ralph Reed needs to answer (5/23)
Ralph
Reed changes story on $1.15M tribal donation (5/20)
Editorial: Alabama Christians have lost credibility
(5/19)
Gaming money went straight to
Ralph Reed's pocket (5/18)
Editorials:
Christian activists have explaining to do (05/16)
GOP group funneled tribal money to anti-gamblers
(5/13)
Abramoff scandal an issue in
Georgia campaign (05/09)
Saginaw
Chippewa Tribe gave $25K to GOP tax group (04/25)
One GOP group won't give records to McCain
(04/22)
McCain subpoenas GOP groups linked
to Abramoff (04/21)
FEC ruling separates
tribes from their businesses (03/14)
GOP
critic of McCain received tribal donations (11/08)
Ralph Reed paid $4.1M to oppose tribes (10/26)
Christian Coalition still after Poarch
Creeks (10/19)
High-priced lobbyist scam
linked to lawmakers (11/18)
Tigua Tribe
tells of lobbying horror story (11/18)
Tigua Tribe mum on Washington lobbyists (10/12)
Tigua Tribe outraged over being played as
'moronic' (09/28)
Lobbyists worked for,
against 'moronic' Tiguas (09/27)
Group
opposing Poarch Creeks tied to tribal lobbyists (09/16)
Bush strategist now knows source of tribal
funds (09/01)
Bush strategist claims no
knowledge of funds (08/31)
Bush-GOP
strategist admits taking tribal money (08/30)
GOP strategist denies secretly taking tribal
money (07/15)
Tribal money secretly
funneled to GOP strategist (06/25)
Copyright © 2000-2005 Indianz.Com
