Lie #6483

[S720]

How much money did the Bush campaign raise in that election?

 

It's not the matter of how much money he had raised in that campaign. It's the fact that everytime this administration gets caught on something negative, it seems like Bush always doesn't know anyone involved. If it's something positive for his administration, he WILL be the first person who will come out and acknowledge it.

[southsider2k5]

It's not the matter of how much money he had raised in that campaign.  It's the fact that everytime this administration gets caught on something negative, it seems like Bush always doesn't know anyone involved.  If it's something positive for his administration, he WILL be the first person who will come out and acknowledge it.

 

He's the President of course he is "invovled" in everything. Eight years ago we were told that wasn't enough to tie him to anything... Remember when Bill Clinton was photographed with key players in the Chinese fund raising scandal, and met with people like Johnny Chung almost 50 times, but that wasn't enough to implicate him in anything. Now Bush meets with the guy a couple of times, and that IS enough to tie him to it? Laughable.

 

Like I said, I almost hope that a democrat is elected to the Presidency just so I can watch the criticism of the President go back to being a "vast right wing conspiracy" instead of "Patriotic". The hypocracy knows no bounds.

[FlaSoxxJim]

Now Bush meets with the guy a couple of times, and that IS enough to tie him to it?  Laughable.

 

That clearly doesn't implicate him in anything, you are correct. And that has been my point. Why put Scotty on the podium and claim they didn't know each other and probably never met, etc., when there is no real harm in saying that Bush met Jack and 2,000 other people that year in the course of his duties as president.

 

It seems they are just incapable of telling the truth about anything anymore, even matters of little consequence like this.

[vandy125]

Why put Scotty on the podium and claim they didn't know each other and probably never met, etc., when there is no real harm in saying that Bush met Jack and 2,000 other people that year in the course of his duties as president.

 

Maybe they should just keep a database of all of the people that Bush has met. Then, they can cross-reference that with any names that come up in a scandle. That wouldn't be a waste of tax payer money...

[Balta1701]

Maybe they should just keep a database of all of the people that Bush has met.  Then, they can cross-reference that with any names that come up in a scandle.  That wouldn't be a waste of tax payer money...

Are you kidding? I'm sure they have a dozen databases of everyone the President has met. Or at least they should. They have databases and photos of virtually everyone who has ever come out to protest an appearance by the President, so they better know who he's meeting and when. Hell, if they ain't doing background checks of those folks first, there's something horribly wrong. Otherwise we could wind up with, I dunno, sleazy homosexual male escorts in the White House press corps or something ridiculous like that.

[BigSqwert]

From TIME Magazine....

 

When George Met Jack

White House aides deny the President knew lobbyist Abramoff, but unpublished photos shown to TIME suggest there's more to the story

By ADAM ZAGORIN AND MIKE ALLEN

 

Posted Sunday, Jan. 22, 2006

As details poured out about the illegal and unseemly activities of Republican lobbyist Jack Abramoff, White House officials sought to portray the scandal as a Capitol Hill affair with little relevance to them. Peppered for days with questions about Abramoff's visits to the White House, press secretary Scott McClellan said the now disgraced lobbyist had attended two huge holiday receptions and a few "staff-level meetings" that were not worth describing further. "The President does not know him, nor does the President recall ever meeting him," McClellan said.

 

The President's memory may soon be unhappily refreshed. TIME has seen five photographs of Abramoff and the President that suggest a level of contact between them that Bush's aides have downplayed. While TIME's source refused to provide the pictures for publication, they are likely to see the light of day eventually because celebrity tabloids are on the prowl for them. And that has been a fear of the Bush team's for the past several months: that a picture of the President with the admitted felon could become the iconic image of direct presidential involvement in a burgeoning corruption scandal—like the shots of President Bill Clinton at White House coffees for campaign contributors in the mid-1990s.

 

In one shot that TIME saw, Bush appears with Abramoff, several unidentified people and Raul Garza Sr., a Texan Abramoff represented who was then chairman of the Kickapoo Indians, which owned a casino in southern Texas. Garza, who is wearing jeans and a bolo tie in the picture, told TIME that Bush greeted him as "Jefe," or "chief" in Spanish. Another photo shows Bush shaking hands with Abramoff in front of a window and a blue drape. The shot bears Bush's signature, perhaps made by a machine. Three other photos are of Bush, Abramoff and, in each view, one of the lobbyist's sons (three of his five children are boys). A sixth picture shows several Abramoff children with Bush and House Speaker Dennis Hastert, who is now pushing to tighten lobbying laws after declining to do so last year when the scandal was in its early stages.

 

Most of the pictures have the formal look of photos taken at presidential receptions. The images of Bush, Abramoff and one of his sons appear to be the rapid-fire shots—known in White House parlance as clicks—that the President snaps with top supporters before taking the podium at fund-raising receptions. Over five years, Bush has posed for tens of thousands of such shots—many with people he does not know. Last month 9,500 people attended holiday receptions at the White House, and most went two by two through a line for a photo with the President and the First Lady. The White House is generous about providing copies—in some cases, signed by the President—that become centerpieces for "walls of fame" throughout status-conscious Washington.

 

Abramoff knew the game. In a 2001 e-mail to a lawyer for tribal leader Lovelin Poncho, he crows about an upcoming meeting at the White House that he had arranged for Poncho and says it should be a priceless asset in his client's upcoming re-election campaign as chief of Louisiana's Coushatta Indians. "By all means mention (in the tribal newsletter) that the Chief is being asked to confer with the President and is coming to Washington for this purpose in May," Abramoff writes. "We'll definitely have a photo from the opportunity, which he can use." The lawyer had asked about attire, and Abramoff advises, "As to dress, probably suit and tie would work best."

 

The e-mail, now part of a wide-ranging federal investigation into lobbying practices and lobbyists' relationships with members of Congress, offers a window into Abramoff's willingness to trade on ties to the White House and to invoke Bush's name to impress clients who were spending tens of millions of dollars on Abramoff's advice.

 

Abramoff was once in better graces at 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue, having raised at least $100,000 for the President's re-election campaign. During 2001 and 2002, his support for Republicans and connections to the White House won him invitations to Hanukkah receptions, each attended by 400 to 500 people. McClellan has said Abramoff may have been present at "other widely attended" events. He was also admitted to the White House complex for meetings with several staff members, including one with presidential senior adviser Karl Rove, one of the most coveted invitations in Washington.

 

Michael Scanlon, who is Abramoff's former partner and has pleaded guilty to conspiring to bribe a Congressman, in 2001 told the New Times of Fort Lauderdale, Fla., that Abramoff had "a relationship" with the President. "He doesn't have a bat phone or anything, but if he wanted an appointment, he would have one," Scanlon said. Nonsense, say others. A former White House official familiar with some Abramoff requests to the White House said Abramoff had some meetings with Administration officials in 2001 and 2002, but he was later frozen out because aides became suspicious of his funding sources and annoyed that the issues he raised did not mesh with their agenda. A top Republican official said it was clear to him that Abramoff couldn't pick up the phone and reach Bush aides because Abramoff had asked the official to serve as an intermediary.

 

The White House describes the number of Abramoff's meetings with staff members only as "a few," even though senior Bush aides have precise data about them. McClellan will not give details, saying he doesn't "get into discussing staff-level meetings." During a televised briefing, he added, "We're not going to engage in a fishing expedition." Pressed for particulars about Abramoff's White House contacts, McClellan said with brio, "People are insinuating things based on no evidence whatsoever." But he said he cannot "say with absolute certainty that (Abramoff) did not have any other visits" apart from those disclosed. Another White House official said, "The decision was made—don't put out any additional information." That reticence has been eagerly seized upon by some Democrats. Senate minority leader Harry Reid of Nevada wrote to Bush last week to demand details, saying Abramoff "may have had undue and improper influence within your Administration."

 

Garza, the bolo-wearing former chairman of the Kickapoo Traditional Tribe of Texas, has fond memories of his session with Bush, which he said was held in 2001 in the Eisenhower Executive Office Building, next to the White House. According to e-mails in the hands of investigators, the meeting was arranged with the help of Abramoff and Grover Norquist, president of Americans for Tax Reform. In an April 18, 2001, e-mail to Abramoff, Norquist wrote that he would be "honored" if Abramoff "could come to the White House meeting." Garza—known in his native Kickapoo language as Makateonenodua, or black buffalo—is under federal indictment for allegedly embezzling more than $300,000 from his tribe. Through his spokesman, Garza said that during the session, Bush talked about policy matters and thanked those present for supporting his agenda, then took questions from the audience of about two dozen people. Garza told TIME, "We were very happy that Jack Abramoff helped us to be with the President. Bush was in a very good mood—very upbeat and positive." No evidence has emerged that the Bush Administration has done anything for the Kickapoo at Abramoff's behest.

 

Three attendees who spoke to TIME recall that Abramoff was present, and three of them say that's where the picture of Bush, Abramoff and the former Kickapoo chairman was taken. The White House has a different description of the event Garza attended. "The President stopped by a meeting with 21 state legislators and two tribal leaders," spokeswoman Erin Healy said. "Available records show that Mr. Abramoff was not in attendance."

[samclemens]

Ok.  Keep your blinders on.

 

he made a good point. its one thing to oppose this administration, which is fine, but when you blame the president personally for everything corrupt in politics...give me a break man. what do you have to say about abramoff's dealings with the dem minority speaker, byron dorgan, who released an almost identical statement in regards to abramoff's large contributions to his campaign? politics are corrupt...and blaming the president for everything is an excuse to not analyze situations, its an easy way out.

 

edit: doragn is a senator, not a house member. sorry.

Edited January 22, 2006 by samclemens

[samclemens]

From TIME Magazine....

 

When George Met Jack

White House aides deny the President knew lobbyist Abramoff, but unpublished photos shown to TIME suggest there's more to the story

By ADAM ZAGORIN AND MIKE ALLEN

 

Posted Sunday, Jan. 22, 2006

As details poured out about the illegal and unseemly activities of Republican lobbyist Jack Abramoff, White House officials sought to portray the scandal as a Capitol Hill affair with little relevance to them. Peppered for days with questions about Abramoff's visits to the White House, press secretary Scott McClellan said the now disgraced lobbyist had attended two huge holiday receptions and a few "staff-level meetings" that were not worth describing further. "The President does not know him, nor does the President recall ever meeting him," McClellan said.

 

The President's memory may soon be unhappily refreshed. TIME has seen five photographs of Abramoff and the President that suggest a level of contact between them that Bush's aides have downplayed. While TIME's source refused to provide the pictures for publication, they are likely to see the light of day eventually because celebrity tabloids are on the prowl for them. And that has been a fear of the Bush team's for the past several months: that a picture of the President with the admitted felon could become the iconic image of direct presidential involvement in a burgeoning corruption scandal—like the shots of President Bill Clinton at White House coffees for campaign contributors in the mid-1990s.

 

In one shot that TIME saw, Bush appears with Abramoff, several unidentified people and Raul Garza Sr., a Texan Abramoff represented who was then chairman of the Kickapoo Indians, which owned a casino in southern Texas. Garza, who is wearing jeans and a bolo tie in the picture, told TIME that Bush greeted him as "Jefe," or "chief" in Spanish. Another photo shows Bush shaking hands with Abramoff in front of a window and a blue drape. The shot bears Bush's signature, perhaps made by a machine. Three other photos are of Bush, Abramoff and, in each view, one of the lobbyist's sons (three of his five children are boys). A sixth picture shows several Abramoff children with Bush and House Speaker Dennis Hastert, who is now pushing to tighten lobbying laws after declining to do so last year when the scandal was in its early stages.

 

Most of the pictures have the formal look of photos taken at presidential receptions. The images of Bush, Abramoff and one of his sons appear to be the rapid-fire shots—known in White House parlance as clicks—that the President snaps with top supporters before taking the podium at fund-raising receptions. Over five years, Bush has posed for tens of thousands of such shots—many with people he does not know. Last month 9,500 people attended holiday receptions at the White House, and most went two by two through a line for a photo with the President and the First Lady. The White House is generous about providing copies—in some cases, signed by the President—that become centerpieces for "walls of fame" throughout status-conscious Washington.

 

Abramoff knew the game. In a 2001 e-mail to a lawyer for tribal leader Lovelin Poncho, he crows about an upcoming meeting at the White House that he had arranged for Poncho and says it should be a priceless asset in his client's upcoming re-election campaign as chief of Louisiana's Coushatta Indians. "By all means mention (in the tribal newsletter) that the Chief is being asked to confer with the President and is coming to Washington for this purpose in May," Abramoff writes. "We'll definitely have a photo from the opportunity, which he can use." The lawyer had asked about attire, and Abramoff advises, "As to dress, probably suit and tie would work best."

 

The e-mail, now part of a wide-ranging federal investigation into lobbying practices and lobbyists' relationships with members of Congress, offers a window into Abramoff's willingness to trade on ties to the White House and to invoke Bush's name to impress clients who were spending tens of millions of dollars on Abramoff's advice.

 

Abramoff was once in better graces at 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue, having raised at least $100,000 for the President's re-election campaign. During 2001 and 2002, his support for Republicans and connections to the White House won him invitations to Hanukkah receptions, each attended by 400 to 500 people. McClellan has said Abramoff may have been present at "other widely attended" events. He was also admitted to the White House complex for meetings with several staff members, including one with presidential senior adviser Karl Rove, one of the most coveted invitations in Washington.

 

Michael Scanlon, who is Abramoff's former partner and has pleaded guilty to conspiring to bribe a Congressman, in 2001 told the New Times of Fort Lauderdale, Fla., that Abramoff had "a relationship" with the President. "He doesn't have a bat phone or anything, but if he wanted an appointment, he would have one," Scanlon said. Nonsense, say others. A former White House official familiar with some Abramoff requests to the White House said Abramoff had some meetings with Administration officials in 2001 and 2002, but he was later frozen out because aides became suspicious of his funding sources and annoyed that the issues he raised did not mesh with their agenda. A top Republican official said it was clear to him that Abramoff couldn't pick up the phone and reach Bush aides because Abramoff had asked the official to serve as an intermediary.

 

The White House describes the number of Abramoff's meetings with staff members only as "a few," even though senior Bush aides have precise data about them. McClellan will not give details, saying he doesn't "get into discussing staff-level meetings." During a televised briefing, he added, "We're not going to engage in a fishing expedition." Pressed for particulars about Abramoff's White House contacts, McClellan said with brio, "People are insinuating things based on no evidence whatsoever." But he said he cannot "say with absolute certainty that (Abramoff) did not have any other visits" apart from those disclosed. Another White House official said, "The decision was made—don't put out any additional information." That reticence has been eagerly seized upon by some Democrats. Senate minority leader Harry Reid of Nevada wrote to Bush last week to demand details, saying Abramoff "may have had undue and improper influence within your Administration."

 

Garza, the bolo-wearing former chairman of the Kickapoo Traditional Tribe of Texas, has fond memories of his session with Bush, which he said was held in 2001 in the Eisenhower Executive Office Building, next to the White House. According to e-mails in the hands of investigators, the meeting was arranged with the help of Abramoff and Grover Norquist, president of Americans for Tax Reform. In an April 18, 2001, e-mail to Abramoff, Norquist wrote that he would be "honored" if Abramoff "could come to the White House meeting." Garza—known in his native Kickapoo language as Makateonenodua, or black buffalo—is under federal indictment for allegedly embezzling more than $300,000 from his tribe. Through his spokesman, Garza said that during the session, Bush talked about policy matters and thanked those present for supporting his agenda, then took questions from the audience of about two dozen people. Garza told TIME, "We were very happy that Jack Abramoff helped us to be with the President. Bush was in a very good mood—very upbeat and positive." No evidence has emerged that the Bush Administration has done anything for the Kickapoo at Abramoff's behest.

 

Three attendees who spoke to TIME recall that Abramoff was present, and three of them say that's where the picture of Bush, Abramoff and the former Kickapoo chairman was taken. The White House has a different description of the event Garza attended. "The President stopped by a meeting with 21 state legislators and two tribal leaders," spokeswoman Erin Healy said. "Available records show that Mr. Abramoff was not in attendance."

 

i trust your source 100% because time magazine is a top notch magazine that i run to for politico news. screw The Economist, time is where it's at!

[Texsox]

That well may have happened.  But, at least it wasn't money from the Chinese government.

 

Always back to Clinton. :headshake People talk about how the left is always after Bush, yet years after Clinton left office, some GOPers are still trying to get him

 

I agree with Evil and others, he could have forgotten. I also think that would be the first line of defense.

[kapkomet]

Always back to Clinton.  :headshake People talk about how the left is always after Bush, yet years after Clinton left office, some GOPers are still trying to get him 

 

I agree with Evil and others, he could have forgotten. I also think that would be the first line of defense.

"Those who do not learn from history are doomed to repeat it".

[Texsox]

"Those who do not learn from history are doomed to repeat it".

 

Yet we reelected him.

[YASNY]

Yet we reelected him.

 

You're right. I still can't believe Clinton got reelected.

[WilliamTell]

You're right.  I still can't believe Clinton got reelected.

 

lol well being honest here I like Bob Dole but I don't think he was that strong of a candidate compared to others that could've been.

[CanOfCorn]

You're right.  I still can't believe Clinton got reelected.

 

Shoot...I can't believe any of these lying cheats get elected to be the so-called, "Most Powerful Man in the World."

 

I don't care who it is...Clinton, Bush, whoever, they are all lucky bastards and equally screw up and help this country all at the same time.

 

Every prez does good things and bad things. The key is, which hasn't seemed to catch on, is HOW TO HANDLE IT!!!

[BigSqwert]

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/11261495/

 

I might have been right in my assumption that Jack-off knew Georgie Porgy.

[vandy125]

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/11261495/

 

I might have been right in my assumption that Jack-off knew Georgie Porgy.

 

I gotta admit that if that information is true, then it sounds like Bush has closer ties than was admitted, but it is going to be hard to prove it.

 

Anyhow, I found this part of the story kind of crazy:

 

Abramoff said he did not make the trip because as an Orthodox Jew he cannot travel on Saturdays.

 

He was doing all of that other stuff, but definitely not traveling on a Saturday

[southsider2k5]

Well thank god taking money from people for influence isn't a crime for the President and Vice President...

 

If they have Bush doing anything illegal for Abramhof, then they need to charge him. Period.

[whitesoxfan101]

Shoot...I can't believe any of these lying cheats get elected to be the so-called, "Most Powerful Man in the World."

 

I don't care who it is...Clinton, Bush, whoever, they are all lucky bastards and equally screw up and help this country all at the same time. 

 

Every prez does good things and bad things.  The key is, which hasn't seemed to catch on, is HOW TO HANDLE IT!!!

 

After all the pissing between both parties is said and done, it's pretty useless. Well said cofc, they are all pieces of s***, and the only difference is who handles their many bad things better.