Nominee For Deputy AG Spills The Beans On Abramoff And Rove

by Scott Shields, Thu Sep 22, 2005 at 07:41:43 PM EDT

The Washington Post headline is amazing. "Tyco Exec: Abramoff Claimed Ties to Administration." Too bad it's stuck on page six.

Republican lobbyist Jack Abramoff bragged two years ago that he was in contact with White House political aide Karl Rove on behalf of a large, Bermuda-based corporation that wanted to avoid incurring some taxes and continue receiving federal contracts, according to a written statement by President Bush's nominee to be deputy attorney general.

Timothy E. Flanigan, general counsel for conglomerate Tyco International Ltd., said in a statement to the Senate Judiciary Committee last week that Abramoff's lobbying firm initially boasted that Abramoff could help Tyco fend off a special liability tax because he "had good relationships with members of Congress," including House Majority Leader Tom DeLay (R-Tex.).

Abramoff later said "he had contact with Mr. Karl Rove" about the issue, according to the statement by Flanigan, who oversaw Tyco's dealings with Abramoff and his firm and received reports from Abramoff about progress in the lobbying campaign. Flanigan's statement is the latest indication that Abramoff promoted himself as having ready access to senior officials in the Bush administration.

With the arrest of David Safavian, I was wondering how long it would take the Abramoff scandal to reach the White House. I've got to admit... this was much faster than I expected.

And by the way, Bush nominated Flanigan to be Deputy Attorney General after his tenure as General Counsel for Tyco, where he sought a way for the company to avoid paying taxes. Does anybody need any more proof that George W. Bush does not care one bit if he runs our country into the ground?

Tags: Republicans (all tags)

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Running the Country Into the Ground

George W. Bush not only doesn't care if he runs the country into the ground, he is actively trying to do so. He is currently looting the treasury with his fake "reconstruction" projects in Iraq and New Orleans (not to mention Afghanistan and, possibly, some of Texas if Hurrican Rita gives him another opening). The Bush Administration sycophants must be having a good laugh at the expense of the American people who still are unwilling to believe that a president could be this evil and crooked.

by steve expat 2005-09-22 07:47PM | 0 recs

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Don't worry

Let them run it into the ground. They will go down with the ship. But as Ma Joad said in The Grapes of Wrath, "We will survive. We're the people!"

by liberal elite 2005-09-22 09:10PM | 0 recs

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Who is Timothy E. Flanigan?

I had never heard of Timothy E. Flanigan until today. I have a feeling that he is about to become much better known.
Flanigan worked in the White House with Alberto Gonzales in 2001 and 2002. He went to work for Tyco in November, 2002 (after former CEO and now convicted felon, Dennis Kozlowski had left the company).
Flanigan hired Abramoff to lobby the federal government to allow Tyco to compete for government contracts even though the company is domiciled in Bermuda to avoid paying taxes.
And now he is President Sluggo's nominee to the post of deputy attorney general.

by tommywonk 2005-09-23 03:48AM | 0 recs

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FBI's doing this right

Ya gotta admit, they're approaching this the right way: move fast and strike right to the core of power.

They're not dicking around, as many of us expected, with smaller fish and buying time for the bigger fish to get away.

They better be careful: at this pace they actually have time to get to Rove and DeLay before the bastards disappear into irrelevance.

by jcjcjc 2005-09-23 08:14AM | 0 recs