GOP Front Group With Ties To DeLay And Abramoff Should Be Investigated

A GOP front group that helped pushed for passage of the fatally flawed Medicare prescription drug benefit was funded, at least in part, by felon-lobbyist Jack Abramoff, likely at the request of Rep. Tom DeLay.

Democratic Leader Nancy Pelosi recently called for a congressional investigation into the passage of the Medicare law based on the role played by yet another group with strong ties to DeLay and Abramoff, the Alexander Strategy Group.

In her call for an investigation, Pelosi laid out the troubled history of this legislation:

When the bill passed, we knew that Democratic members had been denied opportunities to offer amendments and that the vote had been held open for hours in the dead of night to twist arms.  Afterwards, we learned that crucial cost estimates were illegally withheld from Democratic members; that the key Administration official responsible for writing the bill was simultaneously negotiating a high-paying job representing drug and insurance companies; and that the Republican chairman responsible for steering the legislation through Congress subsequently accepted a lucrative job in the pharmaceutical industry.  We further learned about a Republican member who had alleged that a bribe had been offered him on the House floor. 

            Recently, with the indictments of Tom DeLay and Jack Abramoff, new questions have arisen about the role of the Alexander Strategy Group in this dishonest process.  We know from lobby disclosure forms that the largest single client of the Alexander Strategy Group was the pharmaceutical industry, which paid the small firm over $2.5 million, including nearly $1 million in 2003 when the prescription drug law was being written.  We also know from these records that the primary lobbyist for the drug industry at Alexander Strategy Group was Tony Rudy, who previously worked for both Mr. DeLay and Mr. Abramoff and who is identified as “Staffer A” in Mr. Abramoff’s indictment.  And we know from multiple accounts in the news media that the Alexander Strategy Group has been deeply implicated in the scandals now sweeping through Washington.

When President Bush signed the problem-riddled Medicare drug bill, he singled out Sixty Plus, a GOP front group, for praise for their "grassroots" efforts to help pass the legislation. 

So what do we know about Sixty Plus?

Well, according to a June 22, 2005 Associated Press story, there are troubling ties between DeLay, Abramoff, Sixty Plus, and the flawed legislation.

In 2001, Sixty Plus was the recipient of $25,000 from the Coushatta Tribe of Louisiana, a client of Abramoff's. However, the money took a circuitous route to Sixty Plus.  A check was originally written to DeLay's ARMPAC for $25,000. 

That check was returned to Abramoff, and Abramoff in turn requested that the check be reissued to Sixty Plus.

From the AP:

Months earlier, the tribe was asked to cancel a $25,000 check to Americans for a Republican Majority and send that money instead to a group called Sixty Plus that helped Republicans in their two-year effort to get a Medicare prescription drug benefit through Congress.

So the "grassroots" campaign that President Bush praised at the signing ceremony for the Medicare prescription drug fiasco was funded, at least in part, with funds that Abramoff defrauded out of the Coushatta Tribe of Louisiana, and directly, presumably by Rep. Tom DeLay to Sixty Plus.

It doesn't appear that Speaker Hastert has the integrity to launch the investigation requested by Pelosi, but if he ever does, the ties between DeLay, Abramoff, and Sixty Plus should be added to the list of items to be investigated.