---

---

Good thing that everybody is pissed at the President over his pathetic effort to bring democracy to the Middle East.  It's distracting us from paying more attention to the gangrenous cancer destroying the democratic process here at home -- the sale of our government to lobbyists by Tom DeLay and his associates.

It can be downright exhausting trying to follow the influence peddling and money laundering scandal that surrounds convicted lobbyist Jack Abramoff and indicted former House Majority Leader Tom DeLay's interlocking network of senior staffers, pay-as-you-go political action committees, greed and graft.

Like magic they turned sources of unregulated, unlimited soft money funds earmarked for "issue only" political activity into the highly scrutinized, FEC regulated, hard money world of donations to individual office seekers.  They were skating around loopholes faster than lawmakers and regulators knew they existed, let alone close them; especially since so many lawmakers owed DeLay & Company for their "generosity."

Rare indeed is the Republican elected to Washington D.C. or Austin, Texas, who isn't beholden to DeLay's organization.  Even rarer is the industry potentate seeking less public oversight and inconvenient regulations who did not call on them with their checkbook wide open.

I hope this flowchart helps. It's derived mainly from Wikipedia approved Sourcewatch and the Washington Post article detailing how DeLay's former Chief of Staff and Enron lobbyist Edwin Buckham and his wife skimmed over a Million Bucks from a dummy corporation charity used as a front to launder money from disgraced lobbyist Jack Abramoff and the National Republican Congressional Committee (NRCC) into otherwise illegal soft money attack ads against Democratic candidates in vulnerable districts.  U.S. Family Network (USFN), a non-profit corporation was also used to line the pockets of the Buckhams, pay for lavish trips abroad and purchase some very fine artwork.

Organized as a 501(c)(4), USFN took in most of it's $3 million in "donations" from Jack Abramoff clientele, the NRCC, and J.R. Reynolds which hired them to lobby against cigarette regulations.  Principle "family friendly" expenses included over One Million Dollars to Wendy and Ed Buckham in salary and commissions, plus picking up an additional quarter of a million dollars in travel expenses for the couple and USFN's tiny staff.  They also ran pro-impeachment ads against President Clinton and ads attacking vulnerable Democratic congressional candidates.  It appears the family the Buckhams were most "Friendly" towards was their own, proving that chairity does indeed begin at home.

Notable was the involvement of Buckham's wife, Wendy, who (like Tom DeLay's wife Christine) was handsomely compensated for her alleged consultation work for the company.  I presume that her job qualifications included her exquisite taste in decorating the office walls with $62,000 in Salvador Dali and Peter Max prints and a $20,000 Royal Doulton vase all written off as "office fixtures/equipment," -- an office shared with Buckham's two other firms: The Republican Majority Issues Committee (RMIC) which has been named in a RICO civil suit (downloadable PDF), and the Alexander Strategy Group (ASG) which provides Christine DeLay with her salary as "CEO" of ARMPAC as an "accounting convenience." (Shout Out to Hilzoy.  Yes indeed, every office needs a vase.)

Buckham made the Alexander Strategy Group the jewel of the K-Street Project, offering unprecedented access as well as policy management to shepard bills through Congress.  The K-Street Project was created to reward lobbyists loyal to Republicans with access to GOP lawmakers in exchange for cash -- making K-Steet essentially a "fourth branch of government."  Buckham's ASG was co-founded with pharmaceutical lobbyist Tony Rudy, former DeLay counsel and Deputy Chief of Staff.   It was established through a massive donation by Enron to fund deregulation of the energy industry -- just in time for the California Brown Outs in 2000 and 2001.  Obviously these conservatives idea of getting the government off our backs applied primarily to deregulating the tobacco, drug and energy industries.  Regular citizens lacking unlimited funds need not apply.

DeLay's ARMPAC (Americans for a Republican Majority Political Action Committee), an "issues only" 527 group, not to be confused with it's offspring TRMPAC (Texans for a Republican Majority PAC), hired Ed Buckham as a consultant and is managed by Executive Director Jim Ellis (who also founded TRMPAC which is alleged to have illegally laundered national party funds directly to individual candidate's campaigns for the Texas Statehouse).

Ellis was already indicted by Travis Country, Texas, for money laundering when additional charges were brought against him and Tom DeLay for breaking campaign finance laws connected to the activities of TRMPAC.  He is a founder and manager of ARMPAC which provided the seed money for TRMPAC and Ellis' Americans For Economic Growth (AEG) which used almost $300,000 from Buckham's USFN to run attack ads.   (Thank goodness Buckham didn't use ASG to channel money to AEG.  That would have been confusing.)

Have I lost you yet?  Hang on, it gets better.

It certainly would appear that the money used for AEG's ads via the NRCC by way of USFN came courtesy of Ellis' consulting work within DeLay's interlocking chain of soft and hard campaign money outlets.  Now of course Mr. Ellis, head of AEG, also consults for Buckham's lobby firm, Alexander Strategy Group, (ASG) as well as the National Republican Congressional Committee (NRCC).  The NRCC made contributions to both TRMPAC, which were allegedly redirected (illegally) to individual candidates, and Buckham's USFN which sent it on to Ellis' AEG to run ads against evil Democrats.  The NRCC paid a $280,000 fine to the Federal Election Commission for its $500,000 that ended up in the Buckham/Ellis laundromat.

If only they put that much time, energy and innovation into something like, well . . . governing. 

The entire complex scheme can be summed up by a description of the cornerstone of DeLay and Buckham's non-profit apparatus tasked with raising $25 Million for House Republicans, the Republican Majority Issues Committee (RMIC), which shares that same tastefully decorated office suite with USFN and ASG: 

"Never before has a politician navigated through the sea of loopholes to create exactly this kind of organization, a new species."

Lust for Power drove the quest to create this monstrosty.  Simple greed corrupting the powerful is bringing it down.  They may be navigating uncharted territory, but when influence and power are for sale (on a "no-bid" basis for GOP favored industries) the unscrupulous rise to the top much like bile in your throat. This is an ancient story played out once again for all to see.