Grand Old Police Blotter: Republicans Lawyered Up Edition

Texan scumbag Tom DeLay's cronies are as scummy as DeLay himself. One of the bugchaser's former staffers, "public relations executive" Tom Scanlon is the subject of grand jury and Senate investigations into influence peddling.

Just imagine how big of a crook you have to be to be the Republican subject of a graft investigation by the Republican-controlled Senate.

The WaPo reports:

A Texas Indian tribe desperate to reopen its shuttered gambling casino paid two Washington insiders $4.2 million to try to persuade Sen. Christopher J. Dodd (D-Conn.) and Rep. Robert W. Ney (R-Ohio) to slip crucial language into a bill, according to documents released at a congressional hearing yesterday.

The language did not end up in the 2002 Election Reform Act, but the tab for doing business in Washington came due anyway for the Tigua tribe of El Paso. The millions went to lobbyist Jack Abramoff and public relations executive Michael Scanlon, who are embroiled in investigations by Congress and a federal grand jury over the $82 million in lobbying and public relations fees they collected from six tribes that operate gambling casinos.

...

Scanlon, 34, a former aide to House Majority Leader Tom DeLay (R-Tex.), was subpoenaed to appear before the committee. Like Abramoff, who appeared at a hearing in September, he declined to answer questions on the grounds that they could incriminate him [sic].

...

The Washington Post previously reported that Abramoff and Scanlon quietly worked with conservative religious activist Ralph Reed to help persuade the state of Texas to shut down the Tigua casino in 2002, then persuaded the tribe to pay the $4.2 million to try to get Congress to reopen it.

... Documents released yesterday show that when the Tiguas were out of money in 2003, Abramoff came up with a plan to provide term life insurance to tribal elders, who would make their beneficiary a Jewish school Abramoff founded in Wheaton. The school would pay Abramoff's lobbying fees at the firm of Greenberg Traurig, from which he was ousted earlier this year.

The tribe also was asked to pay $50,000 for Ney and several others to accompany Abramoff on a golfing trip to St. Andrews, Scotland. According to testimony yesterday, however, two other tribes ultimately paid $50,000 each for that trip. Among those who accompanied Abramoff and Ney was Reed.

It's great to see men of different faiths working together.

As this article indicates, Abramoff and Scanlon are lawyered up with Plato Cacheris and Abbe Lowell, respectively. Did Short Joey DiGs and Brendan Sullivan have conflicts of interest? Pretty soon all of the D.C. criminal bar will be on retainer to G.O.P. operatives.

The key here is ex-Christian Coalition mouthpiece Ralph Reed, last seen working for the Bush-Cheney campaign. It's time to put Reed under oath, and make him squeal. Put your money where your mouth is, McCain.

p.s. As the last link indicates, there's a Grover Norquist connection here too. It sounds like Norquist might have some relevant testimony. At a minimum his cries of "witch hunt" might provide comic relief for the committee.