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November 17, 2005 09:00 AM UTC

Norton...Norton!!!

  • 11 Comments
  • by: Colorado Pols

U.S. Secretary of the Interior Gale Norton, a Colorado-bred politician, could be in hot water over connections to everybody’s favorite problematic lobbyists, Jack Abramoff. We discussed Norton’s ties to Abramoff months ago, and now Norton may be another in the line of Colorado politicos to be hurt by Abramoff.

Abramoff is a central figure in Tom DeLay’s problems, which have hurt Reps. Bob Beauprez and Marilyn Musgrave by DeLay association, and he may also have hurt Troy Eid’s chances at U.S. Attorney. Now…Norton.

From the Rocky Mountain News:


A U.S. senator accused one of Gale Norton’s longtime, Colorado associates of living in a “fairy tale” on Thursday, after she testified there was no connection between hundreds of thousands of dollars of donations from lobbyist Jack Abramoff’s tribal clients and the work she did to help their causes.

The Senate Indian Affairs Committee grilled Italia Federici, who founded a Republican environmental group with Norton in Colorado, about e-mails portraying her as a conduit between Abramoff and top Interior Department officials, who were considering decisions on land and casino issues at the time.

Committee members have said there is no evidence that Norton did anything improper, although the e-mails show Federici mentioned donations to her non-profit advocacy group at the same time she was promising to arrange contacts for Abramoff and his clients with Norton or her top deputy.

After countless e-mails discussing either tribal business or donations to Federici’s group, Abramoff told Federici: “Thanks for all you do for my clients, the cause and me personally.” Federici acknowledged receiving nearly $500,000 from tribes represented by Abramoff, but she said it was not because she provided any “juice” to get special favors from Interior Department officials.

“Jack was a donor,” Federici said. “I guess this goes to my naivete, but I thought he was very generous.” Sens. John McCain, R-Ariz., and Sen. Byron Dorgan, D-N.D., were combative and incredulous. “It almost sounds like a fairy tale, doesn’t it?” Dorgan asked.

McCain, who chairs the committee, pressed Federici to explain various e-mails suggesting a “quid-pro-quo” relationship, linking the donations to assistance on tribal issues. After Federici repeatedly denied the charge, McCain cut off his questioning, saying, “Since your answers are so bizarre, I won’t continue.”

Federici served on Norton’s unsuccessful campaign for U.S. Senate in 1996. They later teamed up in Colorado to form the group now known as the Council of Republicans for Environmental Advocacy, or C.R.E.A., which highlights GOP efforts on environmental issues.

If there is was an award for most politicians severely damaged by the actions of one person, Abramoff would be a front-runner in 2005.

Comments

11 thoughts on “Norton…Norton!!!

  1. Norton is no less than the champion of corporate corruption! She began her political career with money in the bank from Monsanto, Exxon, Philip Morris, Coors, Amoco, and more. She fought her career on the side of polluters, thiefs and liars. She turned our beautiful american natural landscape into oilfeidls. It’s not NEWS, but its history.  She is just another of the many in this nut-cracked administration to perpetuate the affluency of their corporate interests at the expense of the overwhelming majority of the public (98% at least).  Impeach her with the rest.

  2. Excuse me? The liberal bias of Colorado Pols is laid bear once again.  You continue to annouce that this, that and the other thing have “hurt” Congressman Beauprez or Congresswoman Musgrave without ANY evidence to back these claims up.  Average guy on the street has no idea about this whole thing and more than likely doesn’t really care.

  3. Hey LameGOP, your assesment is quite accurate of the Conserative stance…”i know what average joe thinks and it has nothing to do with what the elected officials really do or should be held accountable for.” That’s is why there are news-medi outlets, so the average joe can see wha you apparently write off as nothing more than the bias of the evil liberals. By the way, Jesus was a liberal!

  4. Republicans have cememted their leadership role.  I call it TC2.  Torture, corruption, cronyism, and treason.  Republicans lead in all four categories.  You got the Vice President of Torture, Abromoff, et al, President “Heckaofjob” Bush, and Libby for liberty.  Thank god the 20th Centruy wasn’t controlled by Republicans, we would have never recovered from the Great Depression and become a superpower.

    Do not let people who don’t believe in government, run the government.  BushCO is what you get.

  5. Why do all of the Post and News stories focus strictly on Norton and Delay’s involvement with Abramoff and ignore HUGE stories that come out on the same issue congress-wide?  Yahoo (http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20051117/ap_on_go_co/tribes_letters___dollars) reported yesterday that over 33 lawmakers weighed in with Sec. Norton to stop approval of an Indian casino that would benefit Abramoff’s client who already operated a casino in the area, and these members then received donations from Abramoff.  We’re talking from Speaker Haster to Senate Minority Leader Reid (apprently Harry only costs $5,000).  It’s dirty all around, but no mention of the broader corruption out in Colorado. 

    And am I the only one who thinks Senator John “Keating Five” McCain has no credibilty on a topic like this?  Talk about the pot calling the kettle black.  He’s dipped his grubby little fingers in the cookie jar too, just not this decade.

  6. I met Italia a few years back.  Her group, CREA, is a make-work sham.  They don’t do anything constructive, never did.  it’s just a way for her to make a living.  A lot of Colorado politicos like Gale Norton tried to support Italia when she started it because the concept was sound: Republicans do good things for the environment, but we need to drastically improve our message.  Nonetheless, they quickly distanced themselves when they realized italia was a name-dropping nutball and otherwise irrelevant.

  7. This Italia chick reminds one of the aging/aged YRs who went from one leech position in the GOP to another. Running CREA, as italiaisatramp above writes, is just a way for her to make a living. Italia lucked into running CREA from a mail-drop at 1730 M Street in Northwest Washington (and her home) but is now one of the few unlucky lower-foodchain members who finds her worst nightmare of being dragged before a Senate hearing come true. No wonder she was dodging a subpoena for as long as she did — all because of that paranoid conspiracy-mentality which most Republicans are plagued with which, in this case, led Italia to believe there was a witch-hunt against her by Senate Indian Affairs Committee staff. (After all she heard it from a member of the press whom she refused to name despite mentioning the conspiracy-theory during her testimony.)

  8. This Italia chick reminds one of the aging/aged YRs who went from one leech position in the GOP to another. Running CREA, as italiaisatramp above writes, is just a way for her to make a living. Italia lucked into running CREA from a mail-drop at 1730 M Street in Northwest Washington (and her home) but is now one of the few unlucky lower-foodchain members who finds her worst nightmare of being dragged before a Senate hearing come true. No wonder she was dodging a subpoena for as long as she did — all because of that paranoid conspiracy-mentality which most Republicans are plagued with which, in this case, led Italia to believe there was a witch-hunt against her by Senate Indian Affairs Committee staff. (After all she heard it from a member of the press whom she refused to name despite mentioning the conspiracy-theory during her testimony.)

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