Abramoff scandal sends waves across Washington
published: Thursday | January 5, 2006

ABRAMOFF

WASHINGTON (Reuters):

LOBBYIST JACK Abramoff's guilty plea in a United States corruption probe sent shock waves across Washington yesterday as top Republicans sought to avoid being tainted by the scandal and Democrats pressed the issue.

President George W. Bush and House of Representatives Speaker Dennis Hastert of Illinois were among Republicans who donated to charity, campaign contributions they had received from Abramoff, while Democrats said the issue would loom large in November's congressional elections.

Others said the investigation would bring needed discipline to a lobbying industry that has enjoyed a freewheeling culture and record earnings.

"I think it's going to make both sides, lobbyists and legislators, ask more questions of each other," said Doug Pinkham, president of the Public Affairs Council, a lobbying-industry trade group.

"A lot of the relationships around lobbying have been awfully loose and enforcement of existing laws has been fairly lax," he said.

Officials with the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, an influential business organisation, said they thought the scandal could encourage lobbying-reform legislation and spur lawmakers to work harder to pass substantive legislation this year.

Abramoff agreed on Tuesday to help Justice Department investigators probing whether members of Congress gave Abramoff and his clients favourable treatment in return for campaign contributions, sports tickets and other gifts.

Both Republicans and Democrats received campaign funds from Abramoff, but much of the attention has been focused on former House Republican Leader Tom DeLay of Texas and Rep. Bob Ney of Ohio.

Democratic Sens. Byron Dorgan of North Dakota and Max Baucus of Montana have returned donations from Abramoff and his clients.

Abramoff also was expected to plead guilty on Wednesday to wire-fraud charges for allegedly falsifying a loan in the purchase of a Florida casino cruise line.

Abramoff's cooperation makes the Justice Department's case much easier, a former prosecutor said.

"The real issue is intent -- what was the intent with which an official committed an act?" said Roma Theus, a Florida lawyer who prosecuted corruption cases with the Justice Department. "Testimony of an insider is critical, because it shows what the actual mind-set was, the thought process was."

Democrats said the Abramoff case, along with other ethics issues, will give them valuable ammunition as they seek to take back control of Congress in November.

"We've been talking for months about the culture of corruption in Washington," said Sarah Feinberg, a spokeswoman for the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee. "When the Republican leadership is completely consumed with defending itself from ethics scandals, then the work of the people does not get done."

Feinberg's Republican counterpart said that voters do not blame their local representatives if a member of the same party is found guilty of corruption.

"The bottom line from a political standpoint is I don't know of anyone who lost a race because of something another member did or didn't do," said National Republican Congressional Committee spokesman Carl Forti.

Ethics watchdog groups said Congress needs to tighten lobbying laws. One liberal group, the Campaign For America's Future, plans to run ads criticising Ney for his close relationship to Abramoff.

Ney said on Tuesday that he has never done anything illegal or improper and did not know the nature of Abramoff's activities when he dealt with him. DeLay has said he did nothing illegal.