In the Thick of the Slime

I hate K Street. The traffic is always obnoxious, and when I have to cater lunches for the prestigious lobbying firms that line the street, it is almost always unpleasant, and rarely profitable. I sometimes get phone calls at 5 PM on a Wednesday night from some snotty lawyer wanting delivery of three sandwiches and two salads to the Hart Senate Office Building in one hour. When I explain that the delivery of fifty dollars worth of food is going to cost the snotty lawyer a hundred and twenty to deliver in an hour, across rush hour traffic, and having the delivery person wait an hour while the recipient is located, then another fifteen minutes to put the food on the conveyor belt and through the ex-ray machine to make sure that there is nothing planted inside the cherry tomato that might harm anyone, the snotty lawyer gets angry. The snotty lawyer says something like this:
"Did you know that I work for the firm of Blahbitty Blah and Blah?"

People who work on K Street work in the political underworld of wheeling and dealing, and business is booming. When the huge pie of the American budget is delivered to the table and ready for serving, there is plenty for everyone, as long as you are willing to funnel half of your slice back into the Republican machine.

I can remember the days when we used to complain about farm subsidies and pork barrel projects like shopping malls and new highways. There was always enough for the defense industry and $400 ashtrays. In the 90's we did away with welfare for the neediest Americans, and a mere decade later, we have re-instated the welfare system for the Americans who need it the least. The corporate tax bill passed last October reduced corporate taxes by a whopping $143 billion. The tax burden always shouldered by the middle class of this country has become heavy indeed, with more families falling from the middle classes and struggling to meet rising costs with stagnant wages.

Even the most cynical among us are sort of stunned by the whole Jack Abramoff scandal. This guy is like the poster boy of corruption, but yesterday the guy gets his passport taken away and his bail was set at 2.2 million because the Feds were afraid he might flee to Israel. He will be facing numerous indictments in DC and in Florida, and will have to speak to prosecutors in Miami concerning the whacking of a former business partner. It's a pretty sexy scandal, there is gambling, murder, dirty money and grand juries. It sounds a little like the Sopranos doesn't it? Except that slimey Jack Abramoff is best buddies with Tom Delay, Ralph Reed, Conrad Burns, Duke Cunningham and a host of other high ranking ReTHUGlicans. Funny how you don't see any of this on CNN or Fox.

The slime thickens. I found this interesting piece in TPM cafe. Not only does Jack Abramoff represent gambling interests, but he apparently goes to bat for certain Saudi bankers, like the one who was named in a lawsuit brought by the families of the victims of 9/11 for funding terrorist organizations. Saleh Abdullah Kamel was listed as one of the seven main sponsors of terrorism in a 2002 report to the UN security council. Jack Abramoff was his PR man.

How does a well connected guy like Jack Abramoff get mixed up with terrorists? Was it just greed, or do we need reach down into the foul, oozing slime of K street to find the thing that really stinks?

I have a gut feeling that this scandal is going to make the Valerie Plame thing seem like a petty misdemeanor.

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