http://www.dcexaminer.com/articles/2006/01/26/opinion/editorial/21edit26wol
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Examiner Editorial - When this Wolf howls, better listen up

It's not the first time a warning by veteran Congressman Frank Wolf, R-Va.,
has fallen on deaf ears. Back when Bill Clinton was still president, Wolf
was the first to alert fellow members of Congress to the danger posed by a
little-known Saudi religious fanatic named Osama bin Laden, but nobody
listened. Nor did his House colleagues take much notice when this longtime
champion of human rights noted that bin Laden - who lived in Sudan from
1992 to 96 - became a partner in a business venture with the genocidal
Sudanese government. ("Wouldn't it be horrible if American money generated
through gum arabic sales helped to finance bin Laden's next attack?" Wolf
prophetically asked in September 2000 - exactly a year before Sept. 11.)

Two years ago, Wolf's own party members again failed to take heed when the
author of legislation establishing the National Gambling Impact Commission
asked the FBI and the Justice Department to investigate potential political
corruption involving Indian-owned casinos.

It wasn't until K Street lobbyist Jack Abramoff pleaded guilty to three
gambling-related felony counts earlier this month - and threatened to take
some big names in the Republican Party down with him - that GOP leaders in
Congress finally snapped to attention.

In a Jan. 12 letter, Wolf asked the White House to impose a moratorium on
recognizing new tribes or opening any more tribal casinos (there are now
more than 405 tribal gambling operations in 30 states) pending an
investigation of abuses in the totally unregulated industry that include:

- Reservation shopping. Tribes set up instant "reservations" - sometimes in
places their members have never historically lived - so they can build
casinos near more populated urban areas.

- Selective enrollment: Federal law specifies that casino profits must be
used to help entire tribes become self-sufficient, but some tribes kick out
legitimate members (for example, a chief's granddaughter lived in poverty
in a two-room trailer in California while nearby, 100 other tribe members
split $100 million in annual casino earnings) while other questionable
"tribes" are formed solely to cash in on the action.

- Exclusive benefits: Just 2 percent of the nation's 1.8 million American
and Alaskan Indians collect 50 percent of all casino profits, mostly
members of two tribes in eastern Connecticut that operate the largest
casino in the world. Meanwhile, the per capita income of two-thirds of all
other Indians averages less than $8,000 per year.

- Money laundering: The McCain-Feingold campaign finance law contains an
enormous "tribal loophole" that exempts Indian tribes from any reporting
requirements whatsoever, making them perfect targets for money laundering.

- Political corruption: "Lobbyists, legislators and inside-the-Beltway
lawyers are the real stakeholders in Indian gambling," Arizona-based lawyer
Alexis Johnson declared in a Jan. 5 Wall Street Journal article by Fergus
Bordewich. "This is the new smallpox blanket."

Like bacon and eggs, "gambling and corruption go together," Wolf told The
Examiner, adding that he has still gotten no reply from the White House.
But GOP leaders should know by now that when this Wolf howls, it's time to
listen up.