The CRNC and Jack Abramoff

Boffoblog points me to this WaPo article updating the College Republicans fundraising scandal. I must say, I'm still waiting for someone to do a little forensic accounting and figure out where all the money went. As I noted here, it just doesn't add up. I believe it's not just the seniors who are getting ripped off here.

Boffoblog also points me to Pudentilla, who notes that Response Dynamics, the firm used by the CRNC for its controversial fundraising pitch, is no stranger to precisely that sort of controversy. There's also a pointer to CRNCTruthCaucus, which appears to be the writings of an extremely disgruntled College Republican. He in turn points me to an update on Jack Abramoff, the College Republican alumnus and Tom DeLay crony who is currently getting grilled over his sleazy ripoffs of Indian tribes. Apparently, Abramoff's old buddies with the CRNC gave him ten grand two years ago. Wonder what that was about.

Anyway. Here's a precious little clip from that WaPo story on Abramoff:

Until the power lobbyist's downfall this year, Abramoff spent about $1 million annually in funds largely provided by his tribal clients to lease four skyboxes -- two at FedEx Field and one each at MCI Center and Camden Yards. Season after season, he kept them brimming with lawmakers, staffers and their guests, part of a multimillion-dollar congressional care and feeding project that even the brashest K Street lobbyists could only watch with awe or envy.

Lobbyists entertain lawmakers and their staffs routinely -- so much so that congressional rules limit the extent of it to avoid the appearance of impropriety. But Abramoff and the lobbyists who worked for him took spending for this form of hospitality to unprecedented heights. They used tribal money, records and interviews show, to pay for events that appeared to be designed more to help House Republicans' campaigns and Abramoff's overall lobbying effort than the Indians' legislative causes. Some members of Congress involved actively opposed Indian gambling.

"Jack Abramoff had one of the biggest schmoozing operations in town," said Rob Jennings, president of American Event Consulting Inc., an organization that raises funds for Republicans.

[...]

Abramoff's most powerful ally on the Hill, House Majority Leader Tom DeLay (R-Tex.), another gaming opponent, held a fundraiser in the MCI Center box for the performance of the Three Tenors on May 7, 2000, according to the list of events maintained in Abramoff's office. The list also shows he held an event in a box at FedEx Field on Sept. 18, 2000.

DeLay spokesman Stuart Roy said that DeLay's fundraising aides remember sending out invitations for the Three Tenors event to reward donors and that the event probably occurred. There was no obligation to report the use of the box under federal law, he said, because the site was used for an event that benefited DeLay's state political action committee.

The office found no record of the use of Abramoff's box for a fundraiser at a Redskins-Dallas Cowboys game on Sept. 18, 2000, as listed in Abramoff's records. "We don't have anything indicating it was offered or utilized," Roy said. "We just don't know."

Amazing how slipshod record-keeping can be when it needs to be, isn't it? I just don't know how that can happen. I just don't know.

Posted by Charles Kuffner on December 27, 2004 to Scandalized! | TrackBack