Money Made of Poison Ivy

With the guilty plea from lobbyist kingpin Jack Abramoff, members of Congress are scrambling to get rid of any money from him or his cronies. The Washington Post has extensive coverage of this latest round of scandal coming from the capital. While this whole scandal may deal a serious blow to the House of Elephants (and perhaps the Senate), there are members of the Democratic Party that are stained, even if slightly, by all this. What happens from here and what voters will think or do by Election Day this year is up to how the prosecutions turn out, how much Abramoff gives up, and how much the news will make it a priority to inform voters of all of this.

However, one question does need to be asked: Abramoff might be the kingpin of the K Street industry in Washington (the lobbyist stronghold), but if this is already swallowing lawmakers on this extensive basis, how much more is there still to be uncovered from other lobbyist big-shots?

How far does this go? Do we even want to find out?



MSNBC (and especially Hardball with Chris Matthews) has made it a point to list which lawmakers have already started throwing away money from this lobbyist cabal. As of the evening of January 5, 2006:

This week:
-President Bush, $6,000 from Abramoff, his wife and the Saginaw Chippewa Indian Tribe of Michigan for the Bush-Cheney 2004 re-election campaign is being donated to the American Heart Association. Abramoff raised at least $100,000 for the campaign.
-House Speaker Dennis Hastert, R-Ill. A spokesman would not say much money Hastert received or planned to donate.
-House Majority Leader Roy Blunt, R-Mo., $8,500 to charity.
-Former House Majority Leader Tom DeLay, R-Texas, $15,000 to local charities in suburban Houston.
-Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist, R-Tenn., $2,000 will be returned to the Michigan Saginaw Chippewa Indian Tribe.
-Senate Minority Whip Dick Durbin, D-Ill., $11,000 to the American Indian Center of Chicago and the American Indian Health Service of Chicago.
-Maryland Gov. Robert L. Ehrlich Jr. (Republican), $16,000.

Senate Republicans:
-Kit Bond, R-Mo., $12,500 to the Salvation Army.
-Jim Bunning, R-Ky., $1,000 to the St. Elizabeth Medical Center inpatient hospice program.
-Saxby Chambliss, R-Ga., $1,000 to the Georgia National Guard Family Support Foundation.
-Thad Cochran, R-Miss., $8,000 to the Mississippi Hurricane Recovery Fund.
-Norm Coleman, R-Minn., $3,000 to be refunded or for charity.
-Elizabeth Dole, R-N.C., $1,000 to charity.
-Mike Enzi, R-Wyo., $1,000 to charity.
-Judd Gregg, R-N.H., $12,000 to Marguerites Place.
-Johnny Isakson, R-Ga., $5,000 refunded. Isakson also donated $4,000 to the Salvation Army in December.
-Jon Kyl, R-Ariz., refunding $4,000 to three Indian tribes.
-Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., $18,500 to the Wayside Christian Mission.
-Rick Santorum, R-Pa., $2,000 to charity.
-Gordon Smith, R-Ore., $8,500 to be refunded or for charity.
-Ted Stevens, R-Alaska, $16,500 to charity. Stevens also donated $1,000 to the Alaska chapter of the Red Cross in December.
-John Sununu, R-N.H., $3,000 to charity.
-Jim Talent, R-Mo., $2,000 to be refunded. Talent also refunded $3,000 in August 2005.
-Craig Thomas, R-Wyo., $8,000 to victims of the 2005 tornado in Wright, Wyo.
-John Thune, R-S.D., $2,000 to White Buffalo Calf Woman Society.
-John W. Warner, R-Va., $1,000 to charity.

Senate Democrats:
-Hillary Rodham Clinton, D-N.Y., $2,000 to charity.
-Tim Johnson, D-S.D., $8,250 to Billy Mills Running Strong for American Indian Youth.
-Barbara Mikulski, D-Md., $5,000, to the American Indian College Fund.

House Republicans:
-Rodney Alexander, R-La., $2,000 to charity.
-Dan Burton, R-Ind., $19,000 to charity.
-Dave Camp, R-Mich., $500 to charity.
-Chris Cannon, R-Utah, $2,000.
-Eric Cantor, R-Va., about $10,000 to the William Byrd Community House.
-Barbara Cubin, R-Wyo., $250 to charity.
-Thomas M. Davis III, R-Va., amount uncertain.
-Kay Granger, R-Texas, $2,000 to Boys and Girls Club of Greater Fort Worth.
-J. Randy Forbes, R-Va., $1,000 to charity.
-Melissa Hart, R-Pa., $2,000 to two women’s shelters.
-J.D. Hayworth, R-Ariz., $2,250 to the Salvation Army Katrina Disaster Fund.
-Sam Johnson, R-Texas, $2,000 to the Dallas-Fort Worth USO.
-Walter Jones, R-N.C., $1,000 to Salvation Army.
-Donald Manzullo, R-Ill., $2,000 to be returned to the Mississippi band of the Choctaw Indian tribe.
-Jim McCrery, R-La., $35,000 to the Salvation Army.
-Marilyn Musgrave, R-Colo., $1,000 to Crossroads Safehouse.
-Bob Ney, R-Ohio, $9,000 to charity.
-Tom Petri, R-Wis., $11,000 to charity.
-Chip Pickering, R-Miss., at least $2,500 to the Mississippi Hurricane Recovery Fund.
-Deborah Pryce, R-Ohio, $8,000 to charity.
-Hal Rogers, R-Ky., $32,000 to the UNITE Foundation.
-Paul Ryan, R-Wis., $949 to USO Operation Phone Home.
-Jim Saxton, R-N.J., $7,000 total refunded in 2004, 2005 and 2006.
-Bill Shuster, R-Pa., $1,000 to charity.
-John Sweeney, R-N.Y., $2,000 to St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital.
-Curt Weldon, R-Pa., 2,000 to charity.
-Jerry Weller, R-Ill., at least $500 to charity.
-Roger Wicker, R-Miss., $250 to Mississippi Hurricane Recovery Fund.
-Heather Wilson, R-N.M., $1,000 to the Great Southwest Council of the Boy Scouts of America.

House Democrats:
-Henry Cuellar, D-Texas, $500 to be returned to the Tigua tribe of El Paso.
-Peter DeFazio, D-Ore., $1,500 total to be returned to the Agua Caliente Band of Cahuilla Indians in California and the Michigan Saginaw Chippewa Indian Tribe.
-Eliot Engel, D-N.Y., $1,000 to be returned to the Saginaw Chippewa Tribe.
-Lane Evans, D-Ill., $2,000 to Community Caring Conference.
-Tim Holden, D-Pa., $1,000 to an animal shelter.
-Nita Lowey, D-N.Y., $2,000 to be refunded.
-Earl Pomeroy, D-N.D., $6,950 to be refunded.
-Charles Rangel, D-N.Y., $2,000 to charity.

December 2005:
-Sen. Max Baucus, D-Mont., $18,892 to seven tribal colleges.
-Sen. Sam Brownback, R-Kan., $42,000 to charity.
-Sen. Conrad Burns, R-Mont., about $150,000 donated to Native American charities and refunded.
-Sen. Kent Conrad, D-N.D., $3,750 to North Dakota’s tribal colleges.
-Sen. Byron Dorgan, D-N.D., $67,000 refunded.
-Rep. Ernest Istook, R-Okla., $6,000 to the Oklahoma Medical Research Foundation.
-Rep. Denny Rehberg, R-Mont., $19,900 refunded and given to charity.

August-November 2005:
-Rep. Mike Ferguson, R-N.J., $1,000 to the Children’s Specialized Hospital Foundation.
-Rep. Frank LoBiondo, R-N.J., returned $1,000.
-Rep. Ralph Regula, R-Ohio, $1,000 to the American Indian College Fund.
-Rep. Rob Simmons, R-Conn., $1,250 to the Bush-Clinton Katrina Fund.

February 2002:
-Sen. David Vitter, R-La., $6,000 refunded.

Although it's already in the list, these are the New Yorkers that have come up thus far:

-Senator Hillary Rodham Clinton, D-N.Y., $2,000 to charity.
-Representative Eliot Engel, D-N.Y., $1,000 to be returned to the Saginaw Chippewa Tribe.
-Representative Nita Lowey, D-N.Y., $2,000 to be refunded.
-Representative Charles Rangel, D-N.Y., $2,000 to charity.
-Representative John Sweeney, R-N.Y., $2,000 to St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital.
(Source for the list is from the MSNBC site previously linked.)

Of course, this is what has been given back so far. There are also some lawmakers, including Senate Minority Leader Harry Reid (D-NV) that have money from Abramoff-related operations, but who have yet (or don't plan) to either return the money or put it to charity.

Maybe this will mean we will finally get a House cleaning this November. Or maybe not. We will have to see where this goes in the next ten months.

If you were Hillary Clinton's opponent in this year's Senate race (John Spencer, former Mayor of Yonkers, is now the likely Republican candidate), it may become a political football worth picking up.

Even if this poison money is all on the up and up for lawmakers, it is hard to see how this will not become an issue this year, especially against the GOP, should this issue continue to earn more press coverage and live into the real campaign season this year.