September 5, 2008, - 1:08 pm
EXCLUSIVE: Rep. Rohrabacher Took Illicit $$$, Perks from Jack Abramoff; While Abramoff Sentenced, Rohrabacher, Islamist Grover Norquist Not; Why?
By Debbie Schlussel
One of John McCain’s biggest achievements in the past several years was the hearings he held about sleazy former lobbyist Jack Abramoff. He’s the one who really got the ball rolling on exposing Jack and leading to his prosecution.
Yesterday, Jack Abramoff was sentenced to four years in prison in connection with his defrauding of federal Indian tribes in his casino gambling lobbying scheme. He is already serving a five-year-plus sentence in prison, for bankruptcy fraud.
The feds recommended a lenient sentence for Abramoff, whom they say has aided in the investigation of many other individuals connected to his scheme.
But two names are not mentioned that should be: Republican Congressman Dana Rohrabacher and pan-Islamist & NRA Board Member Grover Norquist.
Now I can reveal that Congressman Rohrabacher accepted thousands of dollars in illicit funds and perks from Abramoff. Rohrabacher’s wife, Rhonda Carmony, was prosecuted for her fraudulent activities in an election campaign. Sources say that Abramoff donated thousands of dollars to Carmony’s legal defense fund. In addition to that, the sources also say that Rohrabacher and Carmony also accepted from Abramoff a free trip to Europe aboard a private airplane, where their baby or babies were baptized.
While a number of officials, including former Congressman Bob Ney, have gone down for accepting free golf trips and other bribes and lucre from Abramoff, Rohrabacher remains untouched. Why not?
Well, sources say that the reason for that is that Rohrabacher, a close friend and associate of Karl Rove friend Norquist, was being protected by Rove at Norquist’s beheast. Rohrabacher is so close to Norquist that he accompanied him on mysterious Mid-East trips to meet with Gulf State extremists and he praised the Taliban.
And then there is Norquist. Arguably, he is the person–along with Abramoff–who most hurt Americans with his part in Abramoff’s scheme. Abramoff had his Indian tribe clients pay their lobbying fees to Norquist’s non-profit Americans for Tax Reform, thus allowing them to get a tax deduction (subsidized by U.S. taxpayers) for non-deductible lobbying fees. In turn, Norquist, took his cut and then laundered the money through his organization to Jack Abramoff.
Again, neither of these individuals is in prison or even in the indictment stage for their illicit activities with Abramoff. Why?
Two words: Karl Rove.
I hope John McCain–who went after Jack Abramoff (and tried to go after Jihad Grover)–will not allow the GOP to lapse back into this kind of scamming and scheming. And I hope that McCain will put Congressman Rohrabacher at more than an arm’s length distance.
I don’t know where your “sources” got their information, but they obviously don’t know Dana Rohrabacher or Grover Norquist well. For example, Rohrabacher has been known for his differences with President Bush, and I doubt KR would go out of his way to save the career of someone who has made passing the President’s legislation near impossible. Also, the Rohrabachers are blessed with triplets, not 1 baby, who were baptised in the south of France, not Spain.
hoozagoose on September 5, 2008 at 4:48 pm