DELAY IS GOING DOWN!!

DeLay to be indicted: reading the Rudy plea

Sat Apr 01, 2006 at 09:33:18 PM PDT
Across the many pleas and court filings one point is
clear. The USDOJ Public Integrity Section is very
interested in the Commonwealth of the Northern Mariana
Islands (CNMI). They are perhaps best known for
sweatshops producing clothing featuring a "Made in the
USA" label. Protecting the Chinese owners of those
sweatshops was a focus for Abramoff, DeLay and their
GOP gang. They had some success, but by 1998 a new
CNMI Governor took office and cut Jack off from his
Saipan slush fund.

Sure, Willie Tan and the Tan Family stepped in to keep
the money flowing through the Saipan Garment
Manufactures Association and the Western Pacific
Economic Council (formed as a way to flow funds to
Jack), but money from CNMI ultimately was from US tax
payers, so reinstating Jack's gravy train was
important, very important.

It was so important that DeLay, his staff, and the GOP
got involved in fixing the next CNMI election. That
involvement included promises of payoffs, bribes and
quid pro quos a plenty.

The Feds are circling. DeLay and his posse are going
down. It is only a matter of who gives up whom, and
when.

To the jump...

dengre's diary :: ::
How those bribes were paid will put DeLay in the dock.
And he'll have company from a good number of his
caucus members. Connections to CNMI and the Tan Family
are in almost every Abramoff scandal story. It is a
rats nest of corruption that I have been following
since 1999. I smile as the noose tightens around these
GOP scoundrels.

That DeLay was behind fixing the election on CNMI is
widely known, especially in the South Pacific. Ruth L.
Tighe is a CNMI print and online columnist who has
lived on CNMI for over 23 years. Back in January 2000
she wrote about the DeLay takeover of CNMI (emphasis
added and link is from a Google Cache):


Obscene. As in "offensive to accepted standards of
decency." Is there any better word to describe the
machinations of the unholy trio that is trying so hard
to disrupt the normal, routine, civilized way the CNMI
House of Representatives usually does business? [snip]

Adding to the obscenity of it all is the fact that one
of the unholy trio behind all these machinations is an
outsider. He doesn't live here, he's never lived here,
he isn't registered to vote here, and so far as I
know, he doesn't have any family or relatives here.
But, it is said - and it appears obvious - that he has
friends here, and even, so the rumors go, financial
interests. As if that weren't bad enough, he is a
member of the U.S. Congress.

Just what is a member of the U.S. Congress doing
interfering with the internal politics of the CNMI?
Sending his staff out to, in effect, bribe members of
the House by promises of direct financial support from
Congress (and Fitial has freely admitted that two
aides to Congressman Tom Delay did indeed meet with
Rota representative Alejo M. Mendiola and
newly-elected representative from Tinian Norman S.
Palacios)? Particularly when the CNMI is not a U.S.
possession, is not under the control of the U.S.
Congress - as is Washington, D.C. - but is a member of
the U.S. family via a Covenant that in some cases
allows the CNMI more freedom than the states?

Though perhaps hypocritical (or greedy, or
duplicitous), rather than obscene, is the better word
to use in regard to those CNMI legislators now so
docilely feeding at the trough of the U.S. Congress
despite their many protestations in the past that
Congress has no right to interfere in matters internal
to the CNMI.


That was one account of DeLay's hand in the election
of Benigno (Ben) R. Fitial as CNMI Speaker of the
House. There were many others, including in the
Mainland media.

As Walter F. Roche reported:


Two former top aides to House Majority Leader Tom
DeLay brokered a political deal here five years ago
that helped land island government contracts worth
$1.6 million for a Washington lobbyist now the target
of a corruption probe.

Edwin Buckham and Michael Scanlon traveled to these
Pacific islands in late 1999 to persuade two
legislators to switch their votes for speaker of the
18-member House of Representatives in the Commonwealth
of the Northern Mariana Islands. They succeeded. Once
in office, the speaker pressed the island's governor
to reinstate a lobbying pact with Jack Abramoff, now
under grand jury and congressional investigation.

Within months of the visit, Abramoff's law firm had a
contract paying $100,000 a month from the Marianas
government, which it kept until 2002. Also, the island
districts of the legislators who switched sides soon
won benefits from Congress.


Today the Seatle Times had this gem in the many
wrap-ups of Tony Rudy's guilty plea:


The case has Seattle ties. The plea agreement says
Rudy, while working for DeLay in 2000, arranged for
other House aides to travel to the Commonwealth of the
Northern Mariana Islands and helped get Congress to
pay for construction projects in the U.S. territory.

Rudy did this, in part, to help Abramoff and the
Seattle-based law and lobbying firm Preston Gates &
Ellis, where Abramoff worked at the time, according to
the plea agreement.

The Marianas government was a client of Abramoff's and
Preston Gates, which was hired to help keep Congress
from imposing minimum-wage increases on the islands'
garment factories.

The firm lost its lobbying contract there in late
1998. The contract was reinstated in August 2000. Two
months later, the House Appropriations Committee, on
which DeLay served, approved money for Marianas
construction projects.


So we have convicted felons Jack Abramoff, Tony Rudy
and Mike Scanlon tied to DeLay, Fitial and CNMI. Next
on the hit parade will be Ed Buckham. Scanlon was on
the trip when the a deal was struck with CNMI
Legislators Alejo M. Mendiola (Rota) and Norman S.
Palacios (Tinian) to switch their votes and elect Ben
Fitial Speaker of the CNMI House. So was Buckham. Rudy
was the pointman for DeLay in DC. And Tom delivered
the payoff through the appropriation process.

So what earmarks did we pay for? How many extra US
dollars went to CNMI to help the Abramoff/DeLay/GOP
culture of corruption fix elections in the USA?

One good starting place to look is the Saipan Tribune.
It is the newspaper owned by Willie Tan and his
Family. They love to brag on themselves. Take this bit
from a May 22, 2001 story that outlines the status of
funding for various port projects:


House Speaker Benigno R. Fitial received a letter from
US Rep. John T. Doolittle (R-CA) regarding the status
of federal funding for the Rota and Tinian port
projects.[snip]

"I look forward to working with Rep. Doolittle and all
of our allies in Congress and the Administration to
make certain these vital projects continue to receive
needed federal assistance in the future," he added.

Last month, Mr. Fitial met with officials in the new
Bush Administration and key leaders in Capitol Hill to
discuss a myriad of issues that include the state of
the CNMI economy, federal funding for capital
improvement projects, and the application of certain
environmental laws to the CNMI.

Mr. Fitial was also able to build support for his
legislative agenda for the islands, emphasizing the
success of the labor reform efforts that have
occurred. [snip]

On Capitol Hill, Speaker Fitial met with long-term
ally of the CNMI Majority Whip Tom DeLay (R-Texas) and
new Senate Interior Appropriations Subcommittee
Chairman Conrad Burns (R-Montana) to discuss economic
and labor reforms, federal takeover legislation, and
appropriations for vital infrastructure projects.

During his meeting with Majority Whip DeLay, Mr.
Fitial was assured of the continued support from the
House leadership to defend the CNMI Covenant and the
local government's power to control minimum wage and
immigration.


And the Saipan Tribune has a wealth of stories that
connect DeLay, Bush, Burns, Ney, Rohrabacher, Burns,
Doolittle and others to Jack, Fitial, the Tan Family,
sweatshops, China and pay-for-play. I think the USDOJ
Public Integrity Section has a clipping service that
has found some of these links.

And in a balls-out move, Willie Tan, Ben Fitial and
Dana Rohrabacher all wrote letters to the Florida
Judge asking him to go easy on his sentence of Jack
Abramoff for his SunCruz crimes.

And has anybody mentioned that Tony Rudy worked for
Dana Rohrabacher before he started working for DeLay?
Dana and Jack go back to their work in the Iran-Contra
scandal, I hope they can spend some time together in
orange jumpsuits.

But I digress.

Ben Fitial is now Governor of CNMI. Back in December
it was reported that Ben is cooperating with the Feds.
In March he cancelled a trip to DC for the US
Governor's conference to avoid testifying before a
Senate panel. If Ben is truly cooperating, DeLay is
toast. If not, Ben is toast. Either way things are
very bad for DeLay.

From the day Fitial became Speaker of the CNMI House
to today, CNMI has been lavished with attentions and
appropriations. The islands of Rota and Tinian have
new airports. The Tan Family is using those airports
to shift their business on CNMI from sweatshops to
tourism for the new rich of Chine (they can travel to
CNMI without a visa, ya know). And the US Marines are
leaving Okinawa, Japan and coming to Tinian. (I guess
the displace sweatshop workers can find new work in
the booming CNMI sex trade).

The bribes are hidden in the Bills and appropriations
DeLay and his team pushed through Congress. The bribes
are hidden in the work of the Bush White House to look
the other way and wink at certain payoffs. The
testimony and filings related to the trial of David
Safavian will be very interesting.

My guess is that dozens of news organizations are
digging into CNMI and the Abramoff scandal. There are
dozens of rich leads and a dozen shocking stories
could break without much overlap. I think they are on
the way.

And remember this is more that a money scandal. One
aspect is the GOP support for trafficking in women and
minors to support Global Sex trade. I do not know how
the GOP can talk about "values". DeLay's are quite
vile.

I am outrage. I think it is time for the GOP to
explain their support of sexual slavery. Sure it is
only one of their many crimes, but I think an ad
running in the fall featuring the victims of the GOP
Saipan Sex Scandal might get some attention.

In fact it could be an honorable response to their
Swiftboating.

And this is just one scandal thread. As I said before
there are hundreds more. The important thing is to
grab one and run it to ground. The CNMI threads will
lead to an indictment of DeLay, but at least half of
his caucus should join Tom.

It is way past time to take this country back. 2006 is
now. Let's do it!

http://www.dailykos.com/storyonly/2006/4/1/233318/3669




http://www.johnkerry.com/index.html

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