March 22nd, 2005
Masters of Sleaze
By David Brooks
New York Times
Down in the depths of the netherworld, where Tammany Hall grafters and Chicago
ward heelers gather amid spittoons and brass railings, a reverential silence
now spreads across the communion. The sleazemasters of old look back into the
land of the mortals and they see greatness in the form of Jack Abramoff.
Only a genius like Abramoff could make money lobbying against an Indian tribe’s
casino and then turn around and make money defending that tribe against himself.
Only a giant like Abramoff would have the guts to use one tribe’s casino money
to finance a Focus on the Family crusade against gambling in order to shut down
a rival tribe’s casino.
Only an artist like Abramoff could suggest to a tribe that it pay him by taking
out life insurance policies on its eldest members. Then when the elders dropped
off they could funnel the insurance money through a private school and into
his pockets.
This is sleaze of a high order. And yet according to reports in The Washington
Post and elsewhere, Abramoff accomplished it all.
Yet it’s important to remember this: A genius like Abramoff doesn’t spring
fully formed on his own. Just as Michelangelo emerged in the ferment of Renaissance
Italy, so did Abramoff emerge from his own circle of creativity and encouragement.
Back in 1995, when Republicans took over Congress, a new cadre of daring and
original thinkers arose. These bold innovators had a key insight: that you no
longer had to choose between being an activist and a lobbyist. You could be
both. You could harness the power of K Street to promote the goals of Goldwater,
Reagan and Gingrich. And best of all, you could get rich while doing it!
Before long, ringleader Grover Norquist and his buddies were signing lobbying
deals with the Seychelles and the Northern Mariana Islands and talking up their
interests at weekly conservative strategy sessions - what could be more vital
to the future of freedom than the commercial interests of these two fine locales?
Before long, folks like Norquist and Abramoff were talking up the virtues of
international sons of liberty like Angola’s Jonas Savimbi and Congo’s dictator
Mobutu Sese Seko - all while receiving compensation from these upstanding gentlemen,
according to The Legal Times. Only a reactionary could have been so discomfited
by Savimbi’s little cannibalism problem as to think this was not a daring contribution
to the cause of Reaganism.
Soon the creative revolutionaries were blending the high-toned forms of the
think tank with the low-toned scams of the buckraker. Ed Buckham, Tom DeLay’s
former chief of staff, helped run the U.S. Family Network, which supported the
American family by accepting large donations and leasing skyboxes at the MCI
Center, according to Roll Call. Michael Scanlon, DeLay’s former spokesman, organized
a think tank called the American International Center, located in a house in
Rehoboth Beach, Del., which was occupied, according to Andrew Ferguson’s devastating
compendium in The Weekly Standard, by a former "lifeguard of the year"
and a former yoga instructor.
Ralph Reed, meanwhile, smashed the tired old categories that used to separate
social conservatives from corporate consultants. Reed signed on with Channel
One, Verizon, Enron and Microsoft to shore up the moral foundations of our great
nation. Reed so strongly opposes gambling as a matter of principle that he bravely
accepted $4 million through Abramoff from casino-rich Indian tribes to gin up
a grass-roots campaign.
As time went by, the spectacular devolution of morals accelerated. Many of
the young innovators were behaving like people who, having read Barry Goldwater’s
"Conscience of a Conservative," embraced the conservative part while
discarding the conscience part.
Abramoff’s and Scanlon’s Indian-gaming scandal will go down as the movement’s
crowning achievement, more shameless than anything the others would do, but
still the culmination of the trends building since 1995. It perfectly embodied
their creed and philosophy: "I’d love us to get our mitts on that moolah!!"
as Abramoff wrote to Reed.
They made at least $66 million.
This is a major accomplishment. And remember: Abramoff didn’t do it on his
own.
It took a village. The sleazo-cons thought they could take over K Street to
advance their agenda. As it transpired, K Street took over them.