Norm Coleman, Jack Abramoff, and Prostitution

OK, I know that today is “Steve Sarvi Blog Day”, but this story is too big to ignore. The American Bar Association Journal has a story about Abramoff ties to the Bush Department of Justice. In the story, an Abramoff lobbyist suggests using prostitutes as a reward to DOJ staffers. Yes, “prostitutes”. Needless to say, the investigation revealing this was NOT instigated by Norm “Smokescreen” Coleman, R=Lapdog.

Jack Abramoff is currently sitting in Club Fed, convicted for fraud in Miami; he’s got another date before a judge in September for more convictions. And he’s singing like a canary, to make sure he stays in as nice of a Club Fed as he can, for as short of a stay as he can. And to do that, Abramoff has to reach out and get other people. One such person is John Albaugh, former Chief of Staff for Republican Congressman Ernest Istook of Oklahoma, who just pled guilty due to the songs Abramoff is singing. Make no mistake, this is a GOP scandal and it's not going away until at least September, when Abramoff finds out how much longer he stays in Club Fed. Oh - and it’s Senator Smokescreen’s scandal, too – because he never investigated Abramoff in any way, shape nor form.

That there was forced prostitution in a place where the American Flag flies, the Northern Marianas Islands, is beyond dispute. Also beyond dispute is not only the Abramoff connection to the Marianas, but Coleman’s failure to investigate while head of the Senate’s Permanent Subcommittee on Investigations. What is new is the revelation of prostitution here on the good ol’ US of A’s mainland being connected with the Abramoff Scandal. Golf, common knowledge. Drinks, dinner, common knowledge. Tickets to concerts and sporting events, common knowledge.

Here’s what's being reported in the American Bar Association Journal:

"E-Mails Show More Abramoff Links to Ex-DOJ Staffers; Probe Continues"
By Debra Cassens Weiss

Sources tell Legal Times that last week’s guilty plea by a former Justice Department official doesn’t end the investigation of DOJ ties to disgraced lobbyist Jack Abramoff.

Robert Coughlin, a former member of the Justice Department’s Office of Legislative Affairs, pleaded guilty last Tuesday to accepting thousands of dollars worth of meals and tickets from Abramoff. Coughlin admitted he leaked department information, attended meetings and contacted his Justice colleagues to help Abramoff’s clients.

Legal Times found in its examination of court documents and e-mails that Abramoff had many connections in the Justice Department.

One e-mail from Kevin Ring, a member of Abramoff's lobbying team at Greenberg Traurig, touted his success at securing a $16.3 million Justice Department grant for the Mississippi Band of Choctaw Indians, the story says. Initially a deputy assistant attorney general had approved only $9 million for the tribe, but someone in Justice approved the higher amount.

Ring, a former staffer in the Justice Department under Attorney General John Ashcroft, had tickets for the Dave Matthews Band that he was giving to the lawyers who helped his clients. Coughlin, who at one time worked with Ring at DOJ, had helped his friend make contacts with Justice Department staffers. "I have the suite filling up with DOJ staffers that just got our clients $16 million," Ring said in an e-mail to a fellow lobbyist, Padgett Wilson
.
Wilson’s e-mail reply asserted that Dave Matthews tickets weren’t enough of a reward. "As for those DOJ staffers, those guys should get anything they want for the rest of the time they are in office—opening day tickets, Skins v. Giants, oriental massages, hookers, whatever." Wilson is now director of governmental affairs for Georgia Gov. Sonny Perdue. (ABA Journal)

Ladies and Gentlemen, that would be Republican Governor Sonny Perdue, Yes, gentle readers, this guy that suggested offering hookers to DOJ staffers still has a job, in a Republican State House. And we still don't know if the offer of hookers was just an offer, or if the offer accepted. Or if the offer was offered before, or if it was offered again, later. Want to find out? Don't ask Norm; Norm doesn't ask those kinds of questions of fellow Republicans.

Hookers over there, hookers over here, the largest political scandal in American History, and what’s Norm “Smokescreen” Coleman, R=Lapdog investigating? Some British Member of Parliament that rips Coleman and new one and gives Coleman a nickname, “Smokescreen.”

Coleman never investigated anything that might possibly embarrass his benefactors in The White House, especially Abramoff. And just yesterday (Monday, June 9th) it took a House Investigation to tie Abramoff to The White House – ties that The White House (no big surprise, here) has previously denied.

For instance The White House has been insistent that Bush had only met Abramoff twice, yet the House Oversight Committee found that simply is not true.

Norm Coleman has some serious explaining to do; serious explaining why his committee never did any investigations into the biggest political scandal in this country’s history; serious explaining why he never did any investigations that might have stopped prostitution - especially forced prostitution.

Norm “Smokescreen” Coleman, R=Lapdog, is no friend of women.