Rove Aide Resigns in Abramoff Corruption Wake

Rove Aide Resigns in Abramoff Corruption Wake

Having passed inside White House information to ex-lobbyist Jack Abramoff, Karl Rove's aide Susan Ralston has submitted her resignation. Her official title was Executive Assistant to the Senior Advisor to the President of The White House.

A White House spokeperson has said that Ms. Ralston recognized that "a protracted discussion of these matters would be a distraction to the White House." Ralston had worked for Abramoff before joining Rove in 2001. She'd allegedly facilitated more than half of Abramoff's sixty-six contacts with the Bush White House.

The old surfer song "Pipeline" by the Ventures comes to mind when I read how Ms. Ralston aided Abramoff toward his corrupt goals. One example comes from a great timeline I found at Democratic Underground:

Late 2002 – Abramoff learns from his pipeline to the White House—which includes Susan Ralston, who used to be his personal secretary and was now working directly with Karl Rove--of the impending nomination of Leonardo Rapadas to replace Frederick Black as US Attorney of the Marianas. Abramoff instructs his team to send out e-mails claiming credit for getting rid of Black who--as he said in an earlier e-mail--“has been screwing us for years”.

November 18, 2002 – Following the request of U.S. Attorney Black, a federal grand jury in Guam subpoenas the Guam Superior Court for records involving a lobbying contract with Jack Abramoff.

Placing a new GOP-friendly attorney in Black's place may have hidden Abramoff's wrongdoing a bit longer - and the fact that US Attorney Black succeeded in uncovering the slime of a snake Abramoff from under his well-protected rock likely helped to expose Karl Rove's Deputy assistant as sahe worked for the cause of corruption in our White House.

A tip o' the hat to Jeffrey Feldman/Frameshop for quickly getting the news out about this resignation. A tip to John Byrne and Washington Monthly for collecting background information.

Moyers on Norquist, My Back Pages

Moyers on Norquist, My Back Pages

Watching Bill Moyers' fantastic documentary about the Jack Abramoff/Grover Norquist/Tom Delay net of deception, evil, and corruption, I was reminded to look back to some of my posts on Grover Norquist.

This one from 2003 is a doozy, and I've heard nothing in the mainstream media about it.

How this crook and others like him get away with stealing our most precious commodity, which is our democracy, through their evil dealings is beyond all reason. Do we have so many corrupt people in our nation that, through their willful ignorance of what is happening in the D.C. shadows, corruption is swept under a rug?

As more and more people understand how a lobbyist-funded "shadow government" has formed in the lobbyists' headquarters and in lobbyist-owned cafes and restaurants in the shadow of our Capitol building, the complete failure of our media to expose the theft of our democracy will become more and more unforgiveable. Thank God there are Bill Moyers and other real investigative journalists out there. I wish there were more, but rather than finding them in the mainstream, I think you'll likely find them on the blogs or the alternative internet media. As we learn more from each other through grassroots efforts, voters will likely catch on and oust more and more Republicans and Democrats who continue to operate within and cooperate with this perverted style of shadow governing.