That Maverick McCain strikes again

How corrupt is today's Republican Party?  Molly Ivins' occasional collaborator Lou Dubose gives us a vivid glimpse:

Senatorial Courtesy: Will John McCain Let Republican Perps Walk? by Lou Dubose Texas Observer 08/26/05 issue (accessed 08/25/05)

Yes, that intrepid Maverick McCain seems to be holding back some of that famous "straight talk" when it comes to the cesspool of Republican Party corruption.  (Check out this post at De Profundis for more on Maverick McCain's courageous straight talk: McCain's Regression 08/24/05.) Dubose writes:

On September 29, 2004, Arizona Senator John McCain made a promise to six Indian tribes defrauded in an $82-million lobby billing scandal perpetrated by two close associates of House Majority Leader Tom DeLay: “To the aggrieved tribes and Native Americans generally, I say rest assured that this committee’s investigation is far from over. Together we will get to the bottom of this.”

At the time, McCain probably meant what he said. But if he is to be a viable candidate for the Republican presidential nomination in 2008, he may have to slow down the investigation he began a year ago. Because at “the bottom” of the inquiry McCain directs from the chair of the Senate Indian Affairs Committee is a second scandal that extends beyond the $82 million Mike Scanlon and Jack Abramoff took from the six tribes they were working for. Abramoff and Scanlon did more than enrich themselves. They enriched the Republican Party. The two Washington political operatives moved millions out of the accounts of the Indian tribes and into the accounts of Republican campaigns and advocacy groups whose support McCain will need for a presidential run in 2008. The personal contributions they made, such as the $500,000 check Scanlon wrote to the Republican National Governors Association in 2002, were derived from illicit billings of Indian clients.

The article casts light not only on the political considerations that explain Maverick McCain's behavior toward the Republican hard right.  Dubose observes:

McCain has requested ATR’s financial and membership files and Norquist has refused to deliver them. Norquist claims McCain hates him. Perhaps. But Norquist’s unofficial position of power in Washington places him beyond the Senator’s reach.

It's a long, fascinating investigative report, focusing on Abramoff's tribal lobbying operations mentioned in the excerpt above.  The kind that mainstream newspaper and - yes, it's true - even television news used to do with some frequency.

It also provides some an insight into the cynical practical politics of the Christian Right, which I discuss in this Blue Voice post:  Political and financial entrepreneurship by the Christian Right 08/25/05.

This parenthetical passage is titillating:

Abramoff’s six-count, wire fraud indictment unsealed August 11 is not related to Indian gaming, but to an allegedly fraudulent $23 million wire transfer in his purchase of a Florida gambling and cruise ship business. Abramoff did however rely on the support of DeLay and his staff to advance the deal. And Bob Ney entered a statement in the *Congressional Record* praising Abramoff’s venture and criticizing the previous owner, who disagreed with the terms of the purchase and who died in an unsolved, gangland-style shooting.

Even Dear Leader's office could be tainted by investigations into the Abrramoff-Scanlon-DeLay axis:

The White House couldn’t ignore the broadening scope of McCain’s investigation. Abramoff had raised $300,000 for Bush, been invited to a funders’ thank-you at a ranch near the President’s Crawford ranch (declined because he doesn’t travel on the Jewish Sabbath), served on Bush’s transition team in 2000, and had been to the White House on numerous occasions after Bush was elected. According to a source who has been interviewed by the FBI, Abramoff told tribal clients that he met regularly with Karl Rove, who insisted on meeting outside the White House so Abramoff’s name wouldn’t appear in public records. Norquist was selling casino Indians face time with President Bush for $25,000 a head. Bush’s Secretary of the Interior was changing Indian policy to accommodate Abramoff, at the request of DeLay and Speaker Denny Hastert. The scandal that started on K Street reached south toward Pennsylvania Avenue.

This is your Republican Party on OxyContin.  Not a pretty sight.