Word: abramoff
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...area of spending, from a mammoth farm bill to an expensive entitlement in the form of a Medicare prescription-drug benefit to colossal business-as-usual earmark spending. Bush also tarnished his personal image by staying largely silent in the face of ethics flaps involving Tom DeLay, Jack Abramoff and other scandal-plagued Republicans. (Obama should take note, as he continues to sidestep meaningful comment on the long-running travails of Democratic Congressman Charles Rangel.) When Bush ran for President, he, like Obama, suggested he would regularly cross his party's congressional wing when he thought they were dead wrong...
...executive branch is less susceptible to partisanship since it's run by one party at a time. Created in 1978, inspectors general have broken some of the biggest stories in recent years. Bush-era inspector general Earl Devaney exposed unethical behavior by lobbyist Jack Abramoff and forced out then Deputy Secretary of the Interior J. Steven Griles for obstructing his investigation. But IGs are not immune to accusations of partisan influence. Janet Rehnquist, the daughter of the late Supreme Court Justice William Rehnquist, was accused of partisan motivation when she delayed a Florida pension-fund audit at the request...
...Like the lobbying that helps produce them, earmarks were often demonized in the 2008 presidential campaign. In the wake of several high-profile corruption cases over the past few years, from GOP superlobbyist Jack Abramoff to Representative Duke Cunningham, both Obama and Republican nominee John McCain tried to outdo each other with their pledges to rid Washington of the notorious pet projects that legislators slip into spending bills. Obama, who authored 2007 legislation to overhaul congressional ethics rules governing lobbying and earmarks, runs a real credibility risk when he makes exceptions to his own rules. He was already heavily criticized...
...Headed the influence peddling investigation against lobbyist Jack Abramoff, who bragged to several American Indian tribes that he could land them political favors at the Department of the Interior, which oversees gaming on Indian land. Abramoff pleaded guilty in 2006 to conspiracy and is cooperating with a bribery investigation. Devaney's investigation also brought down several Interior Department employees, the highest ranking being J. Steven Griles, second-in-command at the department. Griles admitted to hiding his ties to Abramoff during his 2005 testimony before Congress...
...After Griles' guilty plea in the Jack Abramoff influence peddling case: "I am most proud of the willingness of the many current and former department employees who told the truth about this top Interior official, sometimes at great risk to their own careers." (Washington Post, March...