Making Sense of the Abramoff Scandal

The ever-widening scandal surrounding Republican super-lobbyist Jack Abramoff threatens to take down at least a half-dozen Congressmen in 2006, more of their aides, Executive Branch employees, and untold numbers of other members of the Republican Beltway hierarchy. At least four dozen lawmakers from both parties are documented as having taken actions favorable to Abramoff clients around the time they received large donations from Abramoff and/or his clients.

It's a sordid tale of Washington corruption, and of crony capitalism at its worst, and it is so dizzyingly complex that few media outlets and even fewer members of the public have yet appreciated just how thoroughly it indicts not just Republican leadership, but the entire bipartisan way of crafting public policy that masquerades as 21st century American democracy.

Abramoff figures in at least four separate, interrelated scandals:

1. He and partner Adam Kidan have been indicted on wire fraud and conspiracy charges involving the 2000 purchase of SunCruz Casinos, a Florida gambling boat venture;
2. He funneled money into the PAC run by House Majority Whip Rep. Tom DeLay that has led to Texas charges against DeLay for illegally laundering campaign donations;
3. He and partner Michael Scanlon are suspected of defrauding and vastly overbilling Native American tribes and other clients with gaming interests; and
4. He and Scanlon are also suspected of bribing and offering gifts and spousal jobs to Congressmembers and Executive Branch officials in exchange for actions favorable to their clients.

Appallingly, it's hard to tell with many of Abramoff's activities whether they are crimes, D.C. business as usual, or both. Here, then, compiled from The Washington Post and other sources, is a summary in alphabetical order of 25 of the key players involved, how they relate to each other, and what they're suspected of. It's rather long and exhaustive (of what we know so far), but then, the indictments will be far longer. Read it, keep it as a scorecard, and weep for democracy.

Jack Abramoff: Former chair in the early '80s of the College Republicans (his campaign manager was future anti-tax guru Grover Norquist), and close friend of Karl Rove. Introduced to Republican Texas Rep. Tom DeLay by conservative Jewish activist Rabbi Daniel Lapin in the early '90s, Abramoff helped win DeLay's election as majority whip in 1994, a campaign that cemented the bond between the two. The relationship between Abramoff and DeLay is now the target of investigations by the House of Representatives, the Senate, the Justice Department, and a federal grand jury. Abramoff during the Bush administration became the most influential lobbyist in the country; in 2004 he was a Bush "Pioneer," raising over $100,000 for Dubya's re-election.

Abramoff, 46, was indicted along with partner Adam Kidan in August 2005 by a Florida grand jury on wire fraud and conspiracy charges in a Florida gambling boat venture, SunCruz Casinos. Prosecutors say the purchase by the two of a fleet of casino gambling ships in 2000 for $147.5 million involved a fake wire transfer of $23 million and the falsification of loan documents. For the purchase, Abramoff listed Tony Rudy, then a DeLay aide, and Californian Republican Rep. Dana Rohrabacher as personal references. Abramoff faces up to five years in prison for each of six counts and the forced return of $60 million lost by a casino investor.

Abramoff worked for the D.C. lobbying office of the law firm Preston Gates Ellis from 1994 to 2001, and while there worked with Michael Scanlon and William Jarrell (both former DeLay aides), future General Services Administration head David Safavian, and former Christian Coalition boss Ralph Reed, then a Preston Gates contractor. Abramoff arranged for at least 85 Congressmen and aides to take trips in the late '90s to the Northern Mariana Islands, a Preston Gates client, while attempting to win exemption from minimum wage laws and other legislation favorable to the sweatshops there. The Marianas, a U.S. trust territory in the Pacific, are notorious as the home of numerous sweatshops importing foreign, virtually slave labor that produces products with a "Made in U.S.A. " label.