Abramoff! Abramoff!

Well, now that election is over we can get back to focusing on all those Tom DeLay-related scandals that are still floating about. The WaPo kicks in with a little bio of Jack Abramoff, whose cookies are soon to be toasted by the Senate Committee on Indian Affairs. Here's a little peek at what kind of person Abramoff is:

While at the College Republicans, Abramoff, [Grover] Norquist and [Ralph] Reed quickly earned reputations as zealots. Abramoff wrote in the 1983 annual report: "It is not our job to seek peaceful coexistence with the Left. Our job is to remove them from power permanently." The group's recruits were required to memorize a speech that included the lines: "Democrats are the enemy. Wade into them! Spill their blood!"

Charming, no? And I have to say, I find this bit grimly amusing:

Abramoff's success lay in his ability to portray clients as exemplars of successful free market competition under attack by overzealous Democrats. On behalf of Indian tribes and other clients, Abramoff convinced the GOP majority that Democrats were bent on regulating and taxing the entrepreneurial vitality out of the U.S. economy. In effect, he turned conservative orthodoxy into a cash spigot.

Apparently, Arnold Schwarzenegger never got that memo.

Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger is intent on secret negotiations for more tribal casino compacts, seeking up to 25% of their revenues for the state. In fact, that seems to be part of his strategy for bailing the state out of its financial hole. After the election, he noted he had said during his run for governor that "one of the things where we can get a lot of revenue is from the Indian gaming tribes."

Oops. WaPo link via AJ Garcia.

Posted by Charles Kuffner on November 08, 2004 to Scandalized! | TrackBack