ANd the DeLay/Abramoff imbroglio hits the WH:
A senior White House budget official who resigned abruptly last week was arrested Monday on charges of lying to investigators and obstructing a federal inquiry involving Jack Abramoff, the Republican lobbyist who has been under scrutiny by the Justice Department for more than a year.
The arrest of the official, David H. Safavian, head of procurement policy at the Office of Management and Budget, was the first to result from the wide-ranging corruption investigation of Mr. Abramoff, once among the most powerful and best-paid lobbyists in Washington and a close friend of Representative Tom DeLay, the House majority leader.
According to court papers, Mr. Safavian, 38, is accused of lying about assistance that he gave Mr. Abramoff in his earlier work at the General Services Administration, where he was chief of staff from 2002 to 2004, and about an expensive golf trip he took with the lobbyist to Scotland in August 2002.
In DeLay’s defense, he was probably too busy trimming all of the fat from the budget to notice his buddies were breaking the law.
Zifnab
Ah. He’s a budget offical. Perhaps he’s been the one rubber stamping all the “rase to an eight digit deficit” spending that’s been going on the past five years. I bet if we pin it on him, the rest of the Administration can walk clean.
Zifnab
:-p re: eleven digit.
*sigh* You’d never know I’m majoring in math.
jobiuspublius
Crony Capitalism’s Ollie North?
Krista
I bet this spreads a lot farther than most people would imagine. Do you think it might actually wind up affecting DeLay?
jobiuspublius
Oops! Privatization takes another hit?
ROFLAMAO. Of course.
JoeTx
The corruption of this administration has no bounds! How can people HONESTLY defend their actions?
Tim F
Carpetbagger has more. The funniest part of the story, IMO is when you find out where his wife works. Before you click on the link, imagine the most blatant imaginable conflict-of-interest and you’re just about there.
TallDave
Good, lock ’em all up.
Abramoff and his ilk are a cancer on democracy.
Tim F
Oh yeah, rumor has it that prosecutors are trying to flip him. If he does flip who do you suppose he’ll be testifying against?
AkaDad
John writes,
“In DeLay’s defense, he was probably too busy trimming all of the fat from the budget to notice his buddies were breaking the law.”
To that I say, “A day without sarcasm is like a day without sunshine”
jobiuspublius
I can’t wait for Grover to make his entrance.
docG
Looks like “democracy on the march” is turning into an ongoing perp walk.
jobiuspublius
Just for fun, an interview with Safavian playing the saint.
ROFLMAO.
jobiuspublius
Lobbying at it’s finest:
Geek, Esq.
Can we just indict the entire RNC as a corrupt RICO enterprise?
gratefulcub
Anyone know if he was qualified for this job, or if he was just a political operative? I would like to know so I don’t have to assume
jobiuspublius
So, if Safavin is doing his dirty deeds behind the cloak of an anti-gambling Sen. using gambling lobby money, what’s Grover doing behind Tax-Reform?
Another Jeff
WHY ARE YOU EVEN POSTING THIS?!?! YOU’RE NOTHING BUT A REPUBLICAN APOLOGIST!
Oops, wait a second.
Tim F
You ask, Government Executive magazine answers.
In a word, no.
Nikki
What Josh Marshall says.
jobiuspublius
ROFLMAO, same old MO.
P.S. Are we having a meltdown yet? Oh, this is tooooo rich!
Nikki
We never said John was a Republican apologist. We said he was a Bush apologist.
space
Yawn. Political corruption in the GOP is so dog-bites-man. This IS the GOP, people.
Sure the Dems have had their share of grifters over the years, but bribery and embezzlement was never their raison d’etre. Dems continue to believe that effective government is possible. Repubs don’t. Repubs take no pride in government that works; indeed making government work would undermine their ideology that government is the problem. Ironically, looting the treasury serves two purposes: it enriches Republicans personally and it proves conservatives right philosophically. It’s a win-win for the GOP.
jobiuspublius
I can’t wait.
jobiuspublius
Bonnie and Clyde
Big E
just the first of many about
to fall …
I’ll be lovin’ every second of it…..
Darrell
Ever wonder why all those dead indians and disney characters always seem to vote Dem? funny how that is. Remind me, which party made the strong push for ‘motor voter’?
KC
So, has anyone heard the one about the 2 billion dollars that went missing in Iraq? . . .
Another Jeff
You mean the story from the same article that John linked to yesterday? No, haven’t heard about it.
=0=
Maybe I’m slow today. Totally missing the reference here – what are you saying?
Otto Man
I don’t know about the rest of you, but this line made my job seem more interesting and meaningful. Any job where “debate over acqusition reforms” can “rage” for a decade is just sad. It’s like hearing accountants getting into shouting matches over the new W-2 forms.
Darrell
Par for the course with Dems.
Dems embrace voter fraud.. it’s why they scream so loudly whenever Repubs dare to suggest that voters should provide legit photo ID(!), it’s why Dems pushed the Motor Voter act which makes no citizenship checks before issuing voter cards thereby opening the floodgates to more fraud. It’s why the homeless voted en masse for Dems in Washington. It’s who they are
jobiuspublius
Darrell, I see your motor voter and I raise you fellon list, easily hackable networked black box voting machine, and give me some time to find varied forms of disenfranchisement.
P.S. Shit in Flight to the Fan
jobiuspublius
That’s doable, just Boltonize the IRS.
SeesThroughIt
DemsRepublicans embrace voter fraud. It’s why Florida and Ohio are complete clusterfucks yet always seem to go Republican. It’s why a whole shitload of South Florida Jews suddenly decided in 2000 that Pat Buchanan may be a total anti-Semite, but he should be president! It’s why the president of Diebold stated he was determined to deliver Ohio for Bush, and nobody thought that was a slight conflict of interest and furthermore got Republicans on board with the retarded idea that electronic voting should under no circumstances have a paper trail.See how easy this is, Darrell? See how simple it is to cast aspersions and make one side pure evil and the other side pure righteousness? Did you get that point from the above, or are you giving it the most superficial reading possible? I’m hoping for the former but assuming the latter.
Darrell
Great point. Of course Dems want felons to vote. Felons are generally stupid and uninformed, and the stupid and uninformed are more likely to be persuaded by leftist dogma. And since felons are often habitual criminals, they of course want Dem judges and Dem politicians to make things either for them.
Felons will vote for people who make it easier and more profitable to commit crime. In other words, for Democrats.
Darrell
I guess you missed my initial post which was a RESPONSE to this:
Sure the dems have made a few mistakes, but the Repubs, well they are pure evil, blah
Tim F
Tim F
Super, gremlins ate my reply. I guess this blog is simply too cool for ASCII.
JoeTX
FelonsRepublicans are generally stupid and uninformed, and the stupid and uninformed are more likely to be persuaded byleftist dogmaright-wing spin.Opps, sorry, that isn’t totally true, the other half of the right-wingers are crooks who aren’t finished feeding off the treasurys tit…
slide
Karl Rove, Scotter Libby please take note. Bet their little sphincter muscles are doing a number on them after reading that.
Krista
Ewwwww….Karl Rove’s sphincter.
I’ll take, “Mental Images I Just Didn’t Need” for $1000, Alex!
Con Com
Come on, all White Houses operate like this. You’re going to tell me this kind of thing never happened under Clinton? Does travelgate ring a bell?
It doesn’t sound like a big deal to me, just lying about a trip on a form. If the guy broke the law, he should go to jail, but I think this is the case of a pretty honest administration investigating itself pretty honestly. I give Bush credit for that.
Con Com
No way any of this touches the Hammer. He’s *way* too smart for that.
slide
My apologies Krista
jobiuspublius
OK, now you’re pulling a DougJ on us.
BARRASSO
Darrell says
Felons are generally stupid and uninformed, and the stupid and uninformed are more likely to be persuaded by leftist dogma
Oh god please let voting rights be decided by some sort of intellegence test, republicans would never win another election. There is a reason that cities vote democratic and trailer parks vote republican. Smart people get degrees in difficult fields and move to where the jobs are, creating a smart person gravitational area, which atracts like minded smarties and scientists and artists and generally anyone interested in culture or arts or theatre.
Your red states have an interesting problem with education and culture, the more red an area the less educated the people.
So I’m all for intelligence tests for voting. And domminance by the left forever and ever.
Com Con
Jobiuspublius, what’s your comment there all about? DougJ seems like possible liberal, while Darrell is a conservative. Are you saying Darrell is joking? *Is* Darrell joking? This is the most confusing comments section I’ve ever seen. It’s like watching The Big Sleep.
Darrell
Actually, DougJ can be found right here
How much you wanna bet that’s the same IP as Dougie?
Another Jeff
OK, so using that logic, here in Philly (the bluest part of a blue state) the public school system must be the best in the state and model for the nation, what with all these educated and intellectually curious people here.
What, you mean it’s not?
Jeez, BARRASSO, I live in a blue state and even i think you’re an idiot (although you did do a nice job between the pipes for those two Cup winning Penguin teams).
Krista
Ah, stereotypes again…how refreshing.
Let’s face it, anybody who has spent long enough in the surreal world of politics and/or big business is going to be somewhat corrupt. They completely lose touch with anything outside of their bubble of privilege and entitlement. Some of them are just able to keep their greed to within legal bounds. And others are able to keep their tracks covered. And then you have ones like Safavian, who have probably been bending rules for so long that they think they’re untouchable.
slide
My requirement for voting: a full set of teeth (fake or real)
Guarantee you we wouldn’t be talking about Intelligent Design anymore.
Darrell
How about gold capped teeth which read “SEXY”?
Defense Guy
Top 1000 high schools in the United States.
Way to go Alabama.
Not that it has anything to do with red state vs blue state, but the trend lately has been a move to the south (think climate) and away from cities.
Defense Guy
By the way, when I was growing up and going to high school, that list was dominated by schools in the NE.
jobiuspublius
Darrell is joking, but, he doesn’t know it. Shh.
space
Defense Guy:
That list is pretty much worthless. I don’t know anybody who thinks that the average number of AP tests TAKEN (it’s not even a measurement of passing scores) per student is a valid metric for evaluating the quality of a school.
Obviously, the list is going to be dominated by wealthy communities which send a large majority of their graduating students to college; hence the students will take a greater than average number of AP exams. Big deal.
Look at actual educational quality and, I can assure you, Alabama is way, way down there. (Way to go!)
DougJ
Actually, space, a lot of southern states are doing their damnedest to improve their public schools. I lived in Georgia for a while and I was stunned by how fixated the state was on the quality of public schools. North Carolina has a statewide Science and Math Magnet school that rivals Bronx High School of Science. Southern states are to be commended for their efforts to improve their schools, not mocked.
summr
Well they’d better be doing their damndest to improve those schools. Your post made me remember a July New York Times editorial on Toyota moving its plants to Canada:
Steve S
I’ve been thinking. I need to get myself into gulf recovery reconstruction business.
That’s where the real money is going to be made.
Sojourner
And we certainly know why the Repubs believe that. The Bush administration clearly demonstrates the Repub position.