Tom Delay

"I was actually thinking of writing a book...'The Idiot’s Guide to Buying a Congressman.'"

It's great to see the News-Leader continue to hold Roy Blunt accountable for his long, well-documented record of unethical leadership in Washington.  Water under the bridge, kids! 

What's good for Roy Blunt is good for Missouri.

OK, that's an overstatement, but there's a kernel of truth in that a Missourian in a position of leadership within the U.S. Senate Republican Conference could be beneficial to our state...

It should be noted that Blunt lost his leadership role among House Republicans following the resignation of House Majority Leader Tom DeLay, R-Texas, in a money laundering scandal. Blunt was part of that leadership team. But this has never proven a handicap for the freshman senator with Missourians. In Washington, D.C., it may be considered water under any Potomac River bridge.

Excuse me while I clean the spewed coffee off my keyboard and monitor...  and then clear my memory of all of following now-irrelevant information. 

From the Associated Press:  "A judge has ordered U.S. House Majority Leader Tom DeLay to serve three years in prison for his role in a scheme to illegally funnel corporate money to Texas candidates in 2002. The sentence comes after a jury in November convicted DeLay on charges of money laundering and conspiracy to commit money laundering. DeLay was once one of the most powerful men in U.S. politics, ascending to the No. 2 job in the House of Representatives."

As most readers know, DeLay and Sen. Roy Blunt were extremely close when they were calling the shots in the U.S. House in the mid-2000's. After DeLay stepped down, Blunt made a $20,000 donation to his legal defense fund, the largest individual donation on record (at the time, anyway). 

When DeLay was first charged with crimes in September 2005, Blunt expressed "great regret that Tom DeLay has had to go through what he's going through right now."  In Blunt's mind, DeLay hadn't broken the law -- he was just targeted by prosecutors "because of his effectiveness as a leader."  Watch it:

Here's an interesting tidbit from a weekend AP story about what's on deck for former Majority Leader Tom DeLay now that he's been convicted on on money laundering and conspiracy charges:

The sentencing hearing, which is set to begin Dec. 20, will feature "numerous witnesses who will talk about the other acts of corruption that Tom DeLay has committed," lead prosecutor Gary Cobb said. The defense, which called only five witnesses during the trial compared to 30 for the prosecution, also could present testimony in the penalty phase.

What a tease!  I'm sure the prosecutors have a number of options to choose from -- some of which may involve our own Roy Blunt, a very close confidant of DeLay's in Washington as the Majority Whip and acting Majority Leader until he lost his leadership post because his own colleagues decided his ties to DeLay and also-convicted superlobbyist Jack Abramoff were too great to ignore. 

Remember, for instance, that one of the key DeLay associates who conspired to illegally funnel corporate money to Texas candidates was Jim Ellis, who ran Blunt's Rely On Your Beliefs (ROYB) Fund during Blunt's rise to power.   Ellis faces his own criminal charges in another case. 

The AP broke down a campaign finance "carousel" in 2005 involving Tom DeLay, Roy Blunt, Matt Blunt and Jack Abramoff.

Also remember that in 2000, DeLay and Blunt worked together on a "financial carousel" (that's what the AP called it) to divert money raised at the Republican National Convention to Matt Blunt's gubernatorial campaign.  Here's how the AP summarized the scheme:

Tom DeLay deliberately raised more money than he needed to throw parties at the 2000 presidential convention, then diverted some of the excess to longtime ally Roy Blunt — now occupying DeLay's former post as House Majority Leader — through a series of donations that benefited both men’s causes.

When the financial carousel stopped, DeLay’s private charity, the consulting firm that employed DeLay’s wife and the Missouri campaign of Blunt’s son all ended up with money, according to campaign documents reviewed by The Associated Press.

Jack Abramoff, a Washington lobbyist recently charged in an ongoing federal corruption and fraud investigation, and Jim Ellis, the DeLay fundraiser indicted with his boss last week in Texas, also came into the picture.

The complicated transactions are drawing scrutiny in legal and political circles after a grand jury indicted DeLay on charges of violating Texas law with a scheme to launder illegal corporate donations to state candidates.

This scheme was featured in a 2005 Ad from American Family Voices and the Public Campaign Action Fund, posted to YouTube by the Missouri Democratic Party.

Stay tuned.

h/t Anti Corruption Republican

From the Houston Chronicle:  "A Travis County jury today found former U.S. House Majority Leader Tom DeLay guilty of political money laundering charges relating to a corporate money swap in the 2002 elections. The verdict came down five years after DeLay was forced to step down as the second most powerful Republican in the U.S. House. The charges also led DeLay to resign from his Sugar Land congressional seat in 2006."

For a stroll down memory lane, here's video of Roy Blunt speaking to the press after DeLay's indictment in September 2005. "I think it's fair to say that our members today, while they've expressed great regret that Tom DeLay has had to go through what he's going through right now -- I think, largely because of his effectiveness as a leader, he became a target," Blunt said about the charges that led to today's guilty verdict. 

From the Missouri Democratic Party: "In this final episode, Congressman Roy Blunt cements his position as a true power broker and the ultimate Washington insider. In a revolutionary move, Blunt and DeLay actually outsource some of the business of lawmaking to corporate special interest lobbyists. This lobbyist-fueled political machine becomes known as “Blunt-Inc”, and it creates an “institutionalized alliance” with the most powerful lobbyists in Washington. [Washington Post, 5/17/05] In fact, Blunt's meetings with lobbyists grew to hundreds. According to the National Journal: “Blunt and his staff...regularly consult with roughly 500 lobbyists with K Street shops, trade associations, corporate Washington offices, and interest groups, according to Blunt's office.” [National Journal, 11/5/05]"

Here's a headline in one of Roy Blunt's hometown papers, The Hill, that he can't be thrilled about: "GOP LEADERS PLEDGE K ST. PROJECT DEAD." 

Bad news for Blunt, and for his core constituency.

As you probably remember, Blunt's rise to power with Tom DeLay was inextricably linked with the development of "legion of Republican lobbyists into an arm of the House whip operation."  As summarized in the Washington Post's WhoRunsGov.com biographical summary for Blunt:

Throughout his time in office, Blunt has maintained close ties to lobbyists. He was a House GOP emissary for Tom DeLay’s notorious K Street Project, which prodded the Washington community to hire Republicans and raise money for the GOP cause. Blunt’s PAC employed Jim Ellis, who was indicted on corruption charges along with DeLay. Gregg Hartley, Blunt's former chief of staff, is now a vice chairman of powerhouse lobbying firm Cassidy & Associates.

Tom Edsall wrote (perhaps) the definitive summaries of Blunt's rise to power in 2006

Roy Blunt embodies the insidious, half-legal corruption that has permeated the G.O.P. majority since 1995. Blunt’s election as minority whip, by a 137-to-57 margin, was a defiant Republican rejection of calls to clean up their act. Warnings by Blunt’s challenger, John Shadegg of Arizona — “We ceded our reform-minded principles in exchange for a ...tighter grip on power” — went unheeded.

In 1998, DeLay put Blunt on the leadership ladder, making him chief deputy whip. Blunt modeled himself on DeLay, creating an identical network of state and federal political committees that raised money from the same lobbyists, corporations and trade associations that financed what became known as DeLay Inc...

In 2003, after DeLay moved up to majority leader and turned the so-called K Street Project over to him, Blunt promptly converted a legion of Republican lobbyists into an arm of the House whip operation. Lobbyists have always been close to Congress, under rule by either party. What DeLay and Blunt did was to sacralize this relationship. In doing so, they transferred a chunk of power from Capitol Hill to business interests.

This unholy alliance was a crucial factor in transforming the G.O.P. into an army of spenders whose earmarks, appropriations and tax cuts rivaled the government largess of Lyndon Johnson’s Great Society.

Young Guns, a new election-season book from GOP Reps. Eric Cantor (VA), Paul Ryan and Kevin McCarthy (R-CA), hit bookstore shelves today, and it certainly includes the 'scathing' critique of the most recent GOP leadership team previewed by the Washington Post last week. 

Reading through the book, I was struck by a couple of things: the authors go to great lengths to define their prospective leadership team as one that would be unlike the unethical and hypocritical team of Denny Hastert, Tom DeLay and Roy Blunt.  In Cantor's words, "They did some good things but they also did a lot to give conservatism a bad name."  Yet in spite of this criticism, they do not talk about Hastert, DeLay and Blunt by name.  Nevertheless, it's abundantly clear who they're talking about.   For instance, Cantor writes the following in the first chapter:

But once much of the Contract [with America] had been fulfilled, and the votes had been taken and the promises kept, business in Washington slowly began to revert to business as usual. As the years went by, congressional Republicans began to give in to the temptations that had been the undoing of their predecessors. The leadership of the party changed, and slowly but surely, the GOP began to build their own political machine to match the Democratic machine they had replaced. Republicans were becoming more concerned with winning than governing. But the two go hand in hand.

There were only a few leadership changes after Newt Gingrich and Republicans took over after the 1994 elections: Hastert became Speaker in 1999; DeLay became Majority Leader in 2003; and Roy Blunt became Whip in 2003, and the acting Majority Leader in 2005.  Furthermore, the "political machine" Cantor is talking about is most certainly the alliance with lobbyists developed by DeLay and Blunt in the early 2000s.  As reported by the Post in 2005, "Blunt's organization in scope has begun to rival "DeLay Inc." -- the political fundraising committees, extensive favor-giving and alliances with Republican lobbyists that the majority leader has used to become one of the most influential leaders in memory."

Billy Long ain't fed up with the 'Young Guns."

You may recall that said "Young Guns" are three aspiring leaders in the House GOP Caucus with a new book coming out soon -- one with 'scathing' criticism of Speaker Denny Hastert, Majority Leader Tom DeLay and Majority Whip Roy Blunt.  As previewed by the Washington Post.

Aggressively looking to distance themselves from their party's past, three top Republican House members are using a new book to repeatedly and often scathingly criticize former GOP leaders.

In "Young Guns," due for release in the next couple of weeks, Reps. Eric Cantor (Va.), Kevin McCarthy (Calif.) and Paul Ryan (Wis.) cast the Republican congressional leaders who preceded them as a group that "betrayed its principles" and was plagued by "failures from high-profile ethics lapses to the inability to rein in spending or even slow the growth of government." Cantor specifically says Republicans became "arrogant and "out of touch."

"Under Republican leadership in the early 2000's, spending and government got out of control," McCarthy writes. "As government grew, there were scandals and political corruption. The focus became getting reelected rather than solving problems and addressing pressing issues."

One of the most amusing rhetorical devices I've seen this cycle from the Roy Blunt campaign is the suggestion that Robin Carnahan and Democrats are trying to make the race about "anything but the issues," by which be means "I'd like to talk about anything other than the issues with record in Washington."  On one level, it's interesting to hear the candidate from the Party of Personal Responsibility work so hard evade responsibility for his votes and actions -- but I also find it hard to blame Blunt and his staff for the ploy.  Would you want to try to explain away the bipartisan condemnation of your unethical behavior?

Regardless, any suggestions that a candidate's public record shouldn't be scrutinized are absurd and should raise red flags about what said candidate is trying to hide.  So here, in no particular order, are the top ten things I'd be particularly averse to discussing if I were a certain candidate for the U.S. Senate.

1. Blunt has TWICE been named one of the "Most Corrupt Members of Congress"
   CREW, 2006: "Beyond Delay: The 20 Most Corrupt Members of Congress" Blunt comes in at #1: "Rep. Blunt's ethics issues stem from the misuse of his position to benefit family members, his connections to Jack Abramoff, and a trip paid for by a foreign agent."
   
   CREW, 2005: "Beyond DeLay: The 13 Most Corrupt Members of Congress" "Rep. Blunt’s appointment is a case of ‘new boss, same as the old boss.’ While Rep. Blunt may be new to the job, he has long followed Rep. DeLay’s pattern of ignoring campaign finance laws and ethics rules."
   
   Public Citizen, 1/13/06: "Roy Blunt: Ties to Special Interests Leave Him Unfit to Lead" "In this report, Public Citizen compiles a disturbing dossier on Blunt, based on original research and a comprehensive compilation of news accounts of recent months. In the end, what emerges is a portrait of a legislative leader who not only has surrendered his office to the imperative of moneyed interests, but who has also done so with disturbing zeal and efficiency."
    
2. Blunt got in trouble in 2003 when the Washington Post reported that he had included a clause in a homeland security bill that would have benefited Philip Morris; the move was particularly problematic because Blunt was dating Abigail Perlman, a Philip Morris lobbyist
   The Washington Post's WhoRunsGov.com: "WhoRunsGov.com: "In 2003, Blunt got in trouble when the Washington Post reported that he had included a clause in a homeland security bill that would have benefited Philip Morris. The measure was particularly problematic because Blunt was dating a Philip Morris lobbyist at the time; they’ve since married and adopted a daughter from Russia."
   
   Washington Post, 6/11/03: "It is highly unusual for a House Republican to insert a last-minute contentious provision that has never gone through a committee, never faced a House vote and never been approved by the speaker or majority leader. Blunt's attempt became known only to a small circle of House and White House officials. They kept it quiet, preferring no publicity on a matter involving favors for the nation's biggest tobacco company and possible claims of conflicts of interest...."
       
3. Roy Blunt is not the leader of the House Republicans right now because his own colleagues were concerned about his many ties to Tom DeLay and Jack Abramoff.
   Post-Dispatch, 2/3/06: "Blunt's downfall was not solely due to his status as an incumbent. Lawmakers said that his deep ties to the lobbying effort, his status-quo agenda, and his close relationship with ex-House Majority Leader Rep. Tom DeLay, R-Texas, helped doom his bid. DeLay was forced to step aside after a Texas grand jury indicted him last year; he also is under scrutiny in the Jack Abramoff lobbying scandal."
   
   Washington Post, 2/3/06: "Post-Abramoff Mood Shaped Vote for DeLay's Successor" "What Blunt presumed would be his greatest asset -- his links to the current leadership's system of power and favors -- turned out to be a liability. "
    

In new must-read stories from The Star and Post-Dispatch, we are asked to believe that Roy Blunt -- "the House GOP emissary for Tom DeLay’s notorious K Street Project" who was designated as an exclusive "friend of owner" at Jack Abramoff's DC restaurant -- never actually met the most prominent GOP lobbyist on K Street.   

This is how the denial reads in The Star's weekend story, Missourian embraces role of the insider:

Blunt spokeswoman Burson [Taylor] Snyder, who responded to most of the issues raised in this story by critics, points out: “Roy Blunt never met with Jack Abramoff.”

Emphasis added.  And in today's Post-Dispatch story, Blunt's ties to Abramoff resurface, Taylor Snyder offers a less-sweeping statement: "she 'never witnessed, nor am I aware of, any staff level meetings' with Abramoff."

The Blunt campaign's 2010 assertion that he "never met with Jack Abramoff" is incredibly hard to believe.  Remember that Blunt was listed as a "Friend of the Owner" at Abramoff's DC restaurant, Signatures. (This was before ol' Jack went to the pokey, of course.)   Team Blunt claims now, as they did when this fact was first reported in 2005, that Blunt chose not to avail himself to the free food and beverage he was offered as a friend of Abramoff's. This is irrelevant to the fact that Abramoff considered Blunt a friend, and included him on a very short list of friends at Signatures.   As reported by the New York Times in July 2005:

In the restaurant's early months, a customer list noted who could dine for free, according to two former managers. A copy obtained by The New York Times shows handwritten notes next to 18 names - lawyers, lobbyists and eight current or former lawmakers - designating them as "FOO Comp," for friend of owner, or "A-Comp," for associate of owner.

Only eighteen folks -- and only eight of them were Members of Congress.  And Blunt was on the even more exclusive "FOO" list.  How many people you've never, ever met list you as a "friend" at their swanky restaurants so you can have all the free food and drink you want? 

In honor of John Boehner's visit to Missouri, we bring you this clip from the C-SPAN archives.  As you'll recall, Boehner defeated Roy Blunt in the 2006 leadership elections after Tom DeLay stepped down.

As printed in the Post-Dispatch on February 3, 2006, "Lawmakers said that [Blunt's] deep ties to the lobbying effort, his status-quo agenda, and his close relationship with ex-House Majority Leader Rep. Tom DeLay, R-Texas, helped doom his bid. DeLay was forced to step aside after a Texas grand jury indicted him last year; he also is under scrutiny in the Jack Abramoff lobbying scandal."

Left unsaid in the press conference are the facts that "Boehner called Speaker J. Dennis Hastert (R-Ill.) to privately complain about Blunt's tactics" before the vote, the "rumors that Blunt was trading favors such as better committee assignments for votes," and the fact House GOPers picked Boehner over Blunt because they were "fed up with the current direction of the GOP."

The reaction from the Roy Blunt campaign to fairly tame talk about their candidate's long record of unethical leadership in Washington has been pretty intense.  Andy Blunt and Matt Blunt want people fired (try not to laugh).  Rich Chrismer says that a strong focus on Roy Blunt's glaring ethical problems means the Robin Carnahan campaign has no focus.  Uh-huh. 

Obviously, the strategy here from Team Blunt is to muddy the waters and distract reporters and voters from very real problems in Blunt's record.  It's simply a fact that Blunt has been dogged by questions regarding his leadership in Washington by the press, independent watchdog organizations -- and members of his own party.

For instance, here's a sampling of what's been written by independent watchdog organizations:

• CREW, 2006: "Beyond Delay: The 20 Most Corrupt Members of Congress"
  Blunt comes in at #1: "Rep. Blunt's ethics issues stem from the misuse of his position to benefit family members, his connections to Jack Abramoff, and a trip paid for by a foreign agent."
• CREW, 2005: "Beyond DeLay: The 13 Most Corrupt Members of Congress"
  "Rep. Blunt’s appointment is a case of ‘new boss, same as the old boss.’ While Rep. Blunt may be new to the job, he has long followed Rep. DeLay’s pattern of ignoring campaign finance laws and ethics rules."
• Public Citizen, 1/13/06: "Roy Blunt: Ties to Special Interests Leave Him Unfit to Lead"
  "In this report, Public Citizen compiles a disturbing dossier on Blunt, based on original research and a comprehensive compilation of news accounts of recent months. In the end, what emerges is a portrait of a legislative leader who not only has surrendered his office to the imperative of moneyed interests, but who has also done so with disturbing zeal and efficiency."
• CREW, 1/12/06: "Ethically Challenged Reps. Blunt and Cantor Not Fit for Leadership"
  “If Members of the House were truly committed to cleaning up the cesspool that Congress has become, they would not even consider Reps. Blunt and Cantor to lead the way."

It's worth noting that CREW is more than happy to criticize members of both parties.  As you can see, Democrats outnumber Republicans on the organization's CREWsMostCorrupt.org website.

In 2003, the Washington Post reported that Blunt's relationship with now-wife Abigail Perlman was "raising eyebrows and giving fits to self-appointed ethics cops." Just months earlier, Blunt's attempt to slip in language for benefit Philip Morris into a Homeland Security bill.  By complete coincidence,  Perlman was a lobbyist for Philip Morris, and the two were engaged in a "close personal relationship" at the time.  Blunt's moves to provide the favor for Philip Morris even disgusted Majority Leader Tom DeLay and Speaker J. Dennis Hastert's chief of staff (!). 

A few years later, Thomas B. Edsall, a journalist who covered Blunt's work as Majority Whip and leadership of the K Street Project as a staff writer for the Washington Post, was so disenchanted and disgusted with Blunt's body of work that he took to the opinion pages of the New York Times to write the following:

SAME OLD PARTY

Last Friday, the Republicans gave the Democrats a gift that will keep on giving: Roy Blunt of Missouri.

After an election repudiating the politics of Jack Abramoff and Tom DeLay, Republicans elevated Blunt from the number three spot in the leadership to number two.

Roy Blunt embodies the insidious, half-legal corruption that has permeated the G.O.P. majority since 1995. Blunt’s election as minority whip, by a 137-to-57 margin, was a defiant Republican rejection of calls to clean up their act. Warnings by Blunt’s challenger, John Shadegg of Arizona — “We ceded our reform-minded principles in exchange for a ...tighter grip on power” — went unheeded.

The Washington Post previews the new "Young Guns" book from aspiring GOP leaders, with harsh criticism for the leadership of Speaker Denny Hastert, Majority Leader Tom DeLay and Majority Whip Roy Blunt.

Aggressively looking to distance themselves from their party's past, three top Republican House members are using a new book to repeatedly and often scathingly criticize former GOP leaders.

In "Young Guns," due for release in the next couple of weeks, Reps. Eric Cantor (Va.), Kevin McCarthy (Calif.) and Paul Ryan (Wis.) cast the Republican congressional leaders who preceded them as a group that "betrayed its principles" and was plagued by "failures from high-profile ethics lapses to the inability to rein in spending or even slow the growth of government." Cantor specifically says Republicans became "arrogant and "out of touch."

"Under Republican leadership in the early 2000's, spending and government got out of control," McCarthy writes. "As government grew, there were scandals and political corruption. The focus became getting reelected rather than solving problems and addressing pressing issues."

Coincidently, it was Blunt's long list of ethical lapses and lack of real policy solutions that ended his time in the House leadership team.

CNN: "Disgraced former lobbyist Jack Abramoff was transferred Tuesday from prison to a Maryland halfway house to serve out the remainder of his sentence, a spokeswoman for the Bureau of Prisons told CNN."

Completely unrelated stories:

• AP, 1/11/06: "Blunt, DeLay shared connections to lobbyist Abramoff"
• NY Times, 7/6/05: "For Lobbyist, a Seat of Power Came With a Plate" (regarding Roy Blunt's VIP status at Abramoff's luxurious Washington restaurant)
• AP, 10/5/05: "DeLay, House successor swapped donations; AP campaign document review shows transactions took circuitous routes"

Ten days after the August 3 primary, Tom DeLay (Roy Blunt's Washington mentor) and Jim Ellis (the former director of Roy Blunt's Rely On Your Beliefs PAC) are set to appear in a Texas courtroom for a hearing on pending criminal charges.

The felony indictments for DeLay, Ellis and John Colyandro, another associate, were put on hold in 2005 when Ellis and Colyandro convinced a lower court that they couldn't face state charges for money laundering because their dealings were in checks, not cash. (Seriously). However, the Texas Court of Criminal Appeals unanimously ruled in April that the lower court acted prematurely, and the trial is now set to move forward.

As summarized by The Austin American-Statesman, "the conspiracy charge centers on an allegation that the Texas political committee [Texans for a Republican Majority] sent $190,000 in corporate money to the Republican National Committee which, in turn, donated the same amount to seven legislative candidates in Texas."

In 2005, the Associated Press reported the DeLay and Blunt "orchestrated a [separate] political money carousel in 2000 that diverted donations secretly collected for presidential convention parties to some of their own pet causes."  That scheme also involved Ellis, Jack Abramoff and Matt Blunt's gubernatorial campaign.

Five years ago today, Roy Blunt and "an adoring crowd" gathered at the Washington Hilton for a "high-profile" dinner to celebrate the glorious leader that was Tom DeLay. Majority Whip Blunt was a featured speaker at the celebration, which was scheduled "to inspire confidence in Tom DeLay" as he faced a brand-new ethics investigation. DeLay had already been "admonished repeatedly for ethics problems," of course, but Roy Blunt has never been one to let a few peccadilloes slow him down.

Note how he refers to himself as one of "those of us who are closest to Tom," and declares that "whether it's the well of the House or a well in any other fight, if I had to choose a man to go to the well with, it would be my friend Tom DeLay."

It is important to understand the context here.  Tom DeLay's problems were well known to Blunt and the general public at this point; this is how NPR set the scene the following day:

C-SPAN has an incredible new(ish) video archive that you should check out when you have a few minutes to kill or need a stroll down memory lane.  You can search videos by person, year, or topic, and even search in transcripts of Congressional proceedings and covered events.  Want to watch John Danforth talk about Robert Bork in 1987?  No problem.  Forgot what Harold Volkmer looks like? Here he is talking about the 1990 Farm Bill. Or maybe you'd like to watch Chris Farley impersonate Newt Gingrich in front of Newt Gingrich.

Or, if you prefer, you can watch Roy Blunt talk about being best buds with Tom DeLay, in Roy Blunt's own words. 

ROY BLUNT AT TOM DELAY TRIBUTE DINNER - MAY 12, 2005
At an American Conservative Union dinner held to honor DeLay, Blunt among "those...who are closest to Tom." Blunt concluded: "I've got to tell you, whether it's the well of the House or a well in any other fight, if I had to choose a man to go to the well with, it would be my friend Tom DeLay."

It would inaccurate to describe "Casino Jack" as enjoyable movie. It's well made, compelling and tells its story with powerful first-person accounts.  But its really downright uncomfortable to see and hear the ways Jack Abramoff, Tom DeLay and their lackeys abused the power for personal gain. 

Friday, I had the opportunity watch an online screening of the film, which will hit theaters next Friday, May 7.  It tells the story of Abramoff's rise to power through as a Young Republican, his close relationship and collaboration with Republican leaders in Congress and his schemes to extract millions of dollars from clients like the Louisiana Coushatta tribe.

Casino Jack and the United States of Money director Alex Gibney is making the rounds before the May 7 release of his new movie, and sat down for a very interesting interview with Filmmaker Magazine. In it, he talks about his conversations with Jack Abramoff, how he put together the film, and his thoughts on Tom DeLay.  DeLay and Roy Blunt were very close in Congress, of course;  DeLay hand-picked Blunt to be his successor as House Majority Leader after DeLay "singled Blunt out as a rising star" in 1999. 

Here's what Gibney said about DeLay:

From what you show in the film Tom DeLay is perhaps a bigger villain than Abramoff because he got away with it. I agree. It's unbelievable that he's gotten away with it. I'm surprised that he was never indicted. It really floored me. I mean, he had people like [DeLay Chief of Staff] Ed Buckham and others doing his bidding and you always have deniability in that context. The way the system works allows for an extraordinary amount of flexibility. In order to be found guilty of bribery there has to have been an explicit quid pro quo. But there's never an explicit quid pro quo - that's never how it works. Where [DeLay] and Abramoff saw eye to eye was once you become a kind of hardcore ideologue then anything that contradicts your beliefs is just hidden in plain sight. Jack would always tell me that "Willie Tan [who was involved in the Marianas sweatshops] is such a good guy, and he told me there was no abuse going on so I believed him." Okay Jack. But did Jack ever hire someone who spoke Mandarin to go out to some of the factories to really talk to workers when the foreman wasn't there?