Wednesday, July 12, 2006

Second, the Sadly, No! post is clearly a hit piece on me; that you would use it as proof of anything just shows how disingenuous, cynical, and calculating you are. It doesn’t take a Constitutional scholar to recognize that the entire piece relies on removing context, rearranging chronology, etc., to make it’s "points" — which, if I remember correctly, are that I eat paste and want to slap people with my cock when I’m not dreaming about sexing up animals and being a failed academic hausfrau who is probably also a closeted homosexual.

I was heretofore unaware of our responsibility as conservative bloggers to scour the Internet for posts of this nature and condemn them on an individual basis. Given the overwhelming nature of the task, I fear I will fail to meet the challenge. Number of hours in a day and all that. Yet, I do not wish my all-too-human limitations to be mistaken as an endorsement of murder, homicide, maiming, injury, force or threats of force or any other illegal means of making life unpleasant or nonexistent for another. I'm not for that kind of thing, no sir.

The Senate committee report also details Abramoff's dealings with two others from the College Republicans crowd: Ralph Reed, former Christian Coalition executive director; and Amy Moritz Ridenour, president of the National Center for Public Policy Research, which sponsored a golf trip in 2000 to Scotland for then-Rep. Tom DeLay (R-Tex.).

[...]

Ridenour, appearing before the Indian Affairs Committee last year, acknowledged that her organization had accepted grants lined up by Abramoff and disbursed funds at his suggestion. She insisted that she told Abramoff that the National Center for Public Policy Research would be willing to finance only programs consistent with the group's tax-exempt purpose, listed in tax records as "nonpartisan analysis, study and research."

But dozens of e-mails show that Abramoff and his team considered the national center and other tax-exempt groups a ready resource in their efforts to influence Congress.

In one instance, Abramoff's team wanted to send two lawmakers on a trip to the Mississippi Choctaw reservation in 2001, but one congressman's office had concerns about accepting such a trip from a gaming tribe.

"How about getting National Center for Public Policy Research to sponsor the trip?" Abramoff suggested. "Works for me," replied a lobbying colleague.

E-mails suggest Ridenour was well aware that Abramoff viewed her organization as a convenient pass-through.

In September 2002, Abramoff suggested to one of his associates placing $500,000 in client funds with the national center because the group "can direct money at our discretion, anywhere if you know what I mean."

The same morning Abramoff messaged Ridenour: "I might have $500K for you to run through NCPPR. Is this still something you want to do?" Ridenour was enthusiastic: "Yes, we would love to do it."

Ridenour did not respond to requests for comment on the Senate committee report or the e-mails released with it.