Ralston, S
<p>delay laundered $ , out for himself, a bully, so rove used abramoff to run him 236 (ab reed and grover CR pals, buten ussr flag abe says not to coexist w/ left "our job is to remove them power permanently" 236. JA exec asst Susan Ralston went to WH to work for KR, hired exstaffer Scanlon; had access to staffers to VP, AG, sec Int, trade reps 237 200 mtgs in 10 mos
JA paid Copley News Service col Doug Bandow 2K/art'l 240 (aslo a CTT guy, who does it all the time" 241 //to armstrong? on ed puff pieces?</p><p>=</p><p>mollyivins</p><p><span style="color: rgb(52, 52, 52); font-family: 'Times New Roman', Times, serif; font-size: 14.399999618530273px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">AUSTIN, Texas — Nobody else seems to be asking the obvious question about Susan B. Ralston, former administrative assistant to Jack Abramoff and, until last week, assistant to Karl Rove. She got hired by Rove at $64,700 after the 2004 election and then received a raise to $122,000. Why? I've never gotten a 100 percent raise. Did you? Is this common?</span></p><p><span style="color: rgb(52, 52, 52); font-family: 'Times New Roman', Times, serif; font-size: 14.399999618530273px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"></span></p><h3 style="background-image: none; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); margin: 0px 0px 0.3em; overflow: hidden; padding-top: 0.5em; padding-bottom: 0.17em; border-bottom-style: none; font-size: 16.799999237060547px; line-height: 19.200000762939453px;"><span class="mw-headline" id="eLottery.2C_Inc.">eLottery, Inc.</span><span class="mw-editsection mw-editsection-expanded" style="-webkit-user-select: none; font-size: small; font-weight: normal; margin-left: 1em; vertical-align: baseline; line-height: 1em; display: inline-block; white-space: nowrap; padding-right: 0.25em; unicode-bidi: -webkit-isolate; direction: ltr;"><span class="mw-editsection-bracket" style="margin-left: -0.25em; margin-right: 0.25em; color: rgb(85, 85, 85);">[</span><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Jack_Abramoff&action=edit§ion=11&editintro=Template:BLP_editintro" title="Edit section: eLottery, Inc." style="text-decoration: none; color: rgb(11, 0, 128); background-image: none; background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial;">edit source</a><span class="mw-editsection-divider" style="color: rgb(85, 85, 85);"> | </span><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Jack_Abramoff&veaction=edit§ion=11&editintro=Template:BLP_editintro" title="Edit section: eLottery, Inc." class="mw-editsection-visualeditor" style="text-decoration: none; color: rgb(11, 0, 128); background-image: none; background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial;">edit<span class="ve-tabmessage-appendix" style="font-size: 0.7em; vertical-align: top; line-height: 1.43em; padding-left: 0.5em; background-image: none !important; display: inline !important;">beta</span></a><span class="mw-editsection-bracket" style="margin-right: -0.25em; margin-left: 0.25em; color: rgb(85, 85, 85);">]</span></span></h3><div class="rellink relarticle mainarticle" style="font-style: italic; padding-left: 1.6em; margin-bottom: 0.5em; font-size: 12.800000190734863px; line-height: 19.200000762939453px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">Main article: <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Internet_Gambling_Prohibition_Act" title="Internet Gambling Prohibition Act" style="text-decoration: none; color: rgb(11, 0, 128); background-image: none; background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial;">Internet Gambling Prohibition Act</a></div><p style="margin: 0.4em 0px 0.5em; line-height: 19.200000762939453px; font-size: 12.800000190734863px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">In 1999, <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ELottery" title="ELottery" class="mw-redirect" style="text-decoration: none; color: rgb(11, 0, 128); background-image: none; background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial;">eLottery</a> hired Abramoff to block the <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Internet_Gambling_Prohibition_Act" title="Internet Gambling Prohibition Act" style="text-decoration: none; color: rgb(11, 0, 128); background-image: none; background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial;">Internet Gambling Prohibition Act</a>, which he did by enlisting Reed, Norquist, and Tom DeLay's former chief of staff, <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tony_Rudy" title="Tony Rudy" style="text-decoration: none; color: rgb(11, 0, 128); background-image: none; background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial;">Tony Rudy</a>.<sup id="cite_ref-42" class="reference" style="line-height: 1em; unicode-bidi: -webkit-isolate;"><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jack_Abramoff#cite_note-42" style="text-decoration: none; color: rgb(11, 0, 128); background-image: none; white-space: nowrap; background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial;">[42]</a></sup></p><p style="margin: 0.4em 0px 0.5em; line-height: 19.200000762939453px; font-size: 12.800000190734863px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">Emails from 2000 show that <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Susan_Ralston" title="Susan Ralston" style="text-decoration: none; color: rgb(11, 0, 128); background-image: none; background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial;">Susan Ralston</a> helped<b> Abramoff</b> pass checks from eLottery to <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lou_Sheldon" title="Lou Sheldon" class="mw-redirect" style="text-decoration: none; color: rgb(11, 0, 128); background-image: none; background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial;">Lou Sheldon</a>'s <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Traditional_Values_Coalition" title="Traditional Values Coalition" style="text-decoration: none; color: rgb(11, 0, 128); background-image: none; background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial;">Traditional Values Coalition</a>(TVC) and also to <b>Norquist's</b> <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Americans_for_Tax_Reform" title="Americans for Tax Reform" style="text-decoration: none; color: rgb(11, 0, 128); background-image: none; background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial;">Americans for Tax Reform</a> (ATR), in route to <b>Reed's</b> company, <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Century_Strategies" title="Century Strategies" class="mw-redirect" style="text-decoration: none; color: rgb(11, 0, 128); background-image: none; background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial;">Century Strategies</a>.<sup id="cite_ref-43" class="reference" style="line-height: 1em; unicode-bidi: -webkit-isolate;"><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jack_Abramoff#cite_note-43" style="text-decoration: none; color: rgb(11, 0, 128); background-image: none; white-space: nowrap; background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial;">[43]</a></sup><sup id="cite_ref-44" class="reference" style="line-height: 1em; unicode-bidi: -webkit-isolate;"><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jack_Abramoff#cite_note-44" style="text-decoration: none; color: rgb(11, 0, 128); background-image: none; white-space: nowrap; background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial;">[44]</a></sup></p><p style="margin: 0.4em 0px 0.5em; line-height: 19.200000762939453px; font-size: 12.800000190734863px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">=</p><p style="margin: 0.4em 0px 0.5em; line-height: 19.200000762939453px; font-size: 12.800000190734863px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">kos</p><p style="margin: 0.4em 0px 0.5em; line-height: 19.200000762939453px; font-size: 12.800000190734863px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">
</p><p style="margin: 0.4em 0px 0.5em; line-height: 19.200000762939453px; font-size: 12.800000190734863px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><span style="color: rgb(36, 36, 36); font-family: Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, Geneva, sans-serif; font-size: 12.800000190734863px; line-height: 14.399999618530273px;">Susan Ralston appears to have helped Reed and Norquist (and Rove?) put the squeeze on Abramoff for access to Karl Rove, </span><a href="http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,1121973-1,00.html" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; line-height: 14.399999618530273px; color: rgb(124, 71, 12); text-decoration: none; font-weight: bold; font-family: Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, Geneva, sans-serif; font-size: 12.800000190734863px;"><strong style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.4;">TIME Online Edition</strong></a><span style="color: rgb(36, 36, 36); font-family: Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, Geneva, sans-serif; font-size: 12.800000190734863px; line-height: 14.399999618530273px;">. Now these guys have been working together for years and involved in each other's successes. Are we seeing in this article evidence that Reed and Norquist are controlling access to Rove so they can game Abramoff just as he was gaming them in his scam with his clients? Susan is involved up to her chin and we just have to make some waves to find out if she can swim. </span></p><div class="article-body" style="margin: 15px 0px 0px; padding: 0px; line-height: 14.399999618530273px; overflow: hidden; color: rgb(36, 36, 36); font-family: Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, Geneva, sans-serif; font-size: 12.800000190734863px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><div id="body" class="article-body" style="margin: 15px 0px 0px; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.4; overflow: hidden;"><div class="blockquote" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.4;"><strong style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.4;">An Unholy Alliance?</strong><br style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.4;" />A TIME investigation shows the lobbyist now at the center of a federal probe had a good friend eager to open doors at the White House: former Christian Coalition chief Ralph Reed<br style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.4;" />Abramoff was not without his own ties inside the White House--including his former executive assistant Susan Ralston, who now works in that capacity for Rove. Although Abramoff repeatedly tried to contact Rove, sources tell TIME, he had been able to arrange only one private meeting with Bush's top political strategist, early in 2001. Ralston subsequently referred his occasional requests to the White House intergovernmental-affairs office. When Abramoff pleaded by e-mail in February 2003 for her to help arrange a "quiet message" from Rove to the Interior Department on behalf of a tribal client, Ralston rebuffed him: "Karl and others are aware, but the WH is not going to get involved." So Abramoff sent a copy of Ralston's curt e-mail to Reed, who replied, "this is ridiculous. want any help ...?" </div><div class="blockquote" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.4;"><br style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.4;" />Abramoff's friendship with Reed goes back to their political organizing in the early 1980s, when Abramoff was national chairman of the College Republicans and Reed was executive director. Reed slept on Abramoff's couch at one point and introduced him to the woman he married. After Reed started his consulting firm in 1997, Abramoff threw him what would end up being as much as $4 million worth of business on campaigns to stop gambling--which Reed had once called "a cancer on the American body politic."</div><p style="margin: 1em 0px; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.4;" /><p style="margin: 1em 0px; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.4;"><a href="http://www.dailykos.com/story/2005/10/18/85522/844" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.4; color: rgb(124, 71, 12); text-decoration: none; font-weight: bold;">Rove's Secretary Key Criminal Witness</a></p><p style="margin: 1em 0px; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.4;">Criminal activities seem to be the history of those who have come the College Republicans National Committee. Susan Ralston seem to be able work interchangeability with any of the former CRNC executives, Rove, Abramoff, Reid, Norquist, Blackwell, and the current CRNC leadership who have interned in the White House under Rove.</p><p style="margin: 1em 0px; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.4;">In the <a href="http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2005/10/15/AR2005101501539.html?referrer=email" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.4; color: rgb(124, 71, 12); text-decoration: none; font-weight: bold;">Washington Post</a> article, "How a Lobbyist Stacked the Deck", the reporters pieces together some of the story of the interaction and criminal activities revolving around these players on the national stage. One of the key players, all be it a lower level is Susan Ralston. She seems to have been in on everything for several years now. It was reported that she is now performing some duties for the President now. Between <strong style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.4;">Susan Ralston</strong> and <strong style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.4;">Harriet Miers</strong> it is a good bet that know the dark secrets of the interactions of White House, Delay, Abramoff, Norquiest, Paul Weyrich, Scooter Libby, Rove, and Bush.<br style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.4;" /></p><p style="margin: 1em 0px; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.4;" /><div class="blockquote" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.4;">In May, eLottery hired Abramoff's firm, Preston Gates & Ellis LLP, for $100,000 a month, according to lobbying reports. In the following months, Abramoff directed the company to pay hundreds of thousands of dollars to various organizations, faxes, e-mails and court records show. The groups included Norquist's Americans for Tax Reform; Sheldon's Traditional Values Coalition; companies affiliated with Reed; and a Seattle Orthodox Jewish foundation, Toward Tradition.<br style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.4;" /><br style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.4;" />The eLottery money went first to Norquist's foundation, Americans for Tax Reform (ATR), and then through a second group in Virginia Beach called the Faith and Family Alliance, before it reached Reed's company, Century Strategies. Norquist's group retained a share of the money as it passed through.<br style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.4;" /><br style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.4;" />"I have 3 checks from elot: (1) 2 checks for $80K payable to ATR and (2) 1 check to TVC for $25K," Abramoff's assistant Susan Ralston e-mailed him on June 22, 2000. "Let me know exactly what to do next. Send to Grover? Send to Rev. Lou?"<br style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.4;" /><br style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.4;" />Minutes later Abramoff responded, saying that the check for Sheldon's group should be sent directly to Sheldon, but that the checks for Norquist required special instructions: "Call Grover, tell him I am in Michigan and that I have two checks for him totaling 160 and need a check back for Faith and Family for $150K."</div><br style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.4;" /><br style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.4;" /><div class="blockquote" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.4;">In a telephone interview, Vanderwall said that in July 2000 he was called by Reed's firm, Century Strategies, alerting him that he would be receiving a package. When it came, it contained a check payable to Vanderwall's group for $150,000 from Americans for Tax Reform, signed by Norquist. Vanderwall said he followed the instructions from Reed's firm -- depositing the money and then writing a check to Reed's firm for an identical amount.<br style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.4;" /><br style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.4;" />"I was operating as a shell," Vanderwall said, adding that he was never told how the money was spent. He said: "I regret having had anything to do with it."<br style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.4;" /><br style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.4;" />Another check issued in 2000 by eLottery at Abramoff's direction wound up helping to fund the Scotland golfing trip attended by Rudy and DeLay. On May 25, 2000, as the trip got underway, the company sent $25,000 to the National Center for Public Policy Research, where Abramoff was a board member at the time. Along with money from another Abramoff client, that payment covered most of the Scotland travel costs, according to records and interviews.</div><br style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.4;" /><br style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.4;" /><div class="blockquote" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.4;">Five days after Rudy and DeLay got back from the Scotland trip, Rudy sent an emergency message to Abramoff from a wireless device.<br style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.4;" /><br style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.4;" />"911 gaming," Rudy typed on June 8.<br style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.4;" /><br style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.4;" />He followed up with a suggestion that Abramoff's team get a conservative House caucus to seek a meeting with the chamber's top leaders, Speaker J. Dennis Hastert (R-Ill.) and Majority Leader Richard K. Armey (R-Tex.) -- a key supporter of the bill. Abramoff forwarded the idea to his team members. "Message from Tony Rudy. Don't share it please. However we should take his advice."</div><br style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.4;" /><br style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.4;" /><div class="blockquote" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.4;">Abramoff weighed in minutes later, saying he would get Reed to ramp up efforts. "I just chatted with Ralph. We are going to have to go on the air nationally on radio. We must get the conservatives back on this or we are doomed," he told the team.<br style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.4;" /><br style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.4;" />Abramoff got another strategy e-mail the next morning from Rudy. Rudy was on DeLay's staff but wrote "we" as though he belonged to Abramoff's team. "I think we should get weyrich to get like 10 groups to sign a letter to denny and armey on gaming bill," Rudy wrote, referring to Free Congress Foundation Chairman Paul M. Weyrich and the House leaders.</div><br style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.4;" /><br style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.4;" /><div class="blockquote" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.4;">The Christian Coalition issued an "action alert." Dobson took to the airwaves, saying, "I'm just sick about what the Republican leadership is doing with regard to gambling." He urged listeners to contact DeLay and other House leaders to revive the measure.<br style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.4;" /><br style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.4;" />Abramoff's team realized there was no way to win enough support for a simple majority because they were down more than two dozen votes. Instead, they had to persuade the leadership to keep the bill off the House floor, despite intense pressure from Goodlatte and another backer, Rep. W.J. "Billy" Tauzin (R-La.) .<br style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.4;" /><br style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.4;" />On July 21, DeLay's legislative director, Kathryn Lehman, e-mailed Rudy: "Goodlatte and Tauzin asked Tom [DeLay] what they needed to do to get his vote, and Tom said to talk to you!"<br style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.4;" /><br style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.4;" />Rudy immediately forwarded the e-mail to Abramoff asking for help.<br style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.4;" /><br style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.4;" />Documents show that Abramoff's strategy was to dispatch Sheldon to pressure about 10 social conservatives in their home districts, accusing them of being soft on gambling for supporting Goodlatte's bill. Abramoff's group hoped those members would stir fears among House leaders that another vote on the gambling bill could threaten those members and thus the GOP's thin 13-seat majority.<br style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.4;" /><br style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.4;" />On Aug. 18, Abramoff faxed a message to eLottery's Daum ordering more money for Reed's activities. "I have chatted with Ralph and we need to get the funding moving on the effort in the 10 congressional districts," Abramoff wrote. "Please get me a check as soon as possible for $150,000 made payable to American Marketing Inc. This is the company Ralph is using."<br style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.4;" /><br style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.4;" />ELottery issued the requested check to American Marketing on Aug. 24 and delivered it to Abramoff at Preston Gates. Five days later, Abramoff e-mailed Reed. The subject, "Internet Gambling: And so it continues." The message asked, "Where are we? You got the check, no? Are things moving?"<br style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.4;" /><br style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.4;" />Reed answered the next day: "1. Yes, they got it. 2. Yes, all systems go."</div><p style="margin: 1em 0px; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.4;" /><p style="margin: 1em 0px; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.4;" /><div class="blockquote" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.4;"><a href="http://rawstory.com/news/2005/ROVE_AIDE_CALLED_TO_TESTIFY_TOOK_HIS_MESS_0802.html" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.4; color: rgb(124, 71, 12); text-decoration: none; font-weight: bold;">Raw Story</a> References an article on Salon in 2004, <a href="http://www.salon.com/news/feature/2004/05/24/armey/index1.html" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.4; color: rgb(124, 71, 12); text-decoration: none; font-weight: bold;">House divided</a><br style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.4;" /><br style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.4;" />"GOP enforcer Tom DeLay and his former partner Dick Armey are locked in a nasty dispute over the future of the Republican Party."<p style="margin: 1em 0px; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.4;" /><p style="margin: 1em 0px; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.4;">"For two years, the assistant who answered Rove's phone was a woman who had previously worked for lobbyist Jack Abramoff, a close friend of Norquist's and a top DeLay fundraiser," Salon reported. "One Republican lobbyist, who asked not to be named because DeLay and Rove have the power to ruin his livelihood, said the way Rove's office worked was this: 'Susan took a message for Rove, and then called Grover to ask if she should put the caller through to Rove. If Grover didn't approve, your call didn't go through.'"</p></div><p style="margin: 1em 0px; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.4;" /><p style="margin: 1em 0px; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.4;">Here is some BIO-background on the former College Republicans National Committee.</p><p style="margin: 1em 0px; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.4;"><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/College_Republicans" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.4; color: rgb(124, 71, 12); text-decoration: none; font-weight: bold;">WikipediA</a></p><p style="margin: 1em 0px; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.4;" /><div class="blockquote" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.4;">The College Republicans, collectively, are an arm of the United States Republican Party for college and university students. The term College Republicans relates specifically to college students who term themselves Republican, but does not reflect the legal and political structure in which College Republicans typically operate. College students who consider themselves College Republicans are represented nationally by an I.R.C. Code 527 Political Organization called the College Republican National Committee which provides leadership and support to associated chapters nationwide. Due to campaign finance laws of the late 1990's, the national Republican Party officially severed ties with both the College Republicans and its fraternal twin the Young Republicans in 2001.<p style="margin: 1em 0px; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.4;" /><p style="margin: 1em 0px; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.4;">Notable College Republicans have included Deputy White House Chief of Staff Karl Rove, prominent Republican strategist Lee Atwater, Americans for Tax Reform President Grover Norquist and U.S. Senator Rick Santorum.</p></div><p style="margin: 1em 0px; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.4;" /><p style="margin: 1em 0px; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.4;"><strong style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.4;">Morton C. Blackwell</strong> is the trainer as documented all over the internet and in the CRNC IRS filings.<br style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.4;" /><br style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.4;" /><a href="http://www.leadershipinstitute.org/01ABOUTUS/02MCBlackwell.htm" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.4; color: rgb(124, 71, 12); text-decoration: none; font-weight: bold;">Leadership Institute</a></p><p style="margin: 1em 0px; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.4;" /><div class="blockquote" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.4;">Professionally, Morton Blackwell is the president of the Leadership Institute, a non-partisan educational foundation he founded in 1979.<p style="margin: 1em 0px; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.4;" /><p style="margin: 1em 0px; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.4;">His institute prepares conservatives for success in politics, government and the news media. Over the years the Leadership Institute has trained more than 40,000 students. It currently has revenue of $7 million per year and a staff of 57.</p><p style="margin: 1em 0px; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.4;">In youth politics, Mr. Blackwell was a College Republican state chairman and a Young Republican state chairman in Louisiana.</p><p style="margin: 1em 0px; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.4;">He served on the Young Republican National Committee for more than a dozen years, rising to the position of Young Republican National Federation national vice chairman at large.</p><p style="margin: 1em 0px; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.4;">Off and on for five years, 1965-1970, he worked as executive director of the College Republican National Committee under four consecutive College Republican national chairmen.</p></div><p style="margin: 1em 0px; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.4;" /><p style="margin: 1em 0px; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.4;"><strong style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.4;">Jack Abramoff</strong> has been involved in more criminal activities than the average Bush.</p><p style="margin: 1em 0px; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.4;" /><div class="blockquote" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.4;"><a href="http://web.archive.org/web/20030612020908/http://gtlaw.com/bios/govadmin/abramoffj.htm" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.4; color: rgb(124, 71, 12); text-decoration: none; font-weight: bold;">Greenberg Traurig, LLP</a> contains Jack own resume:<br style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.4;" /><br style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.4;" />Jack is a former executive director of President Ronald Reagan's grassroots lobbying organization, Citizens For America, where he directed and crafted lobbying efforts on a broad range of issues. Jack also had a direct role in shaping the agenda of the second Reagan presidential term, which, in its later applications, ultimately brought the Republican Party to control of Congress in 1994. Before this position, Jack was the national chairman of the student wing of the Republican Party - the College Republican National Committee and a member of the national executive committee of the Republican National Committee.<br style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.4;" /><br style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.4;" />Professional and Community Involvement<br style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.4;" /><br style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.4;" /><strong style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.4;"> Executive Director of President Ronald Reagan's grassroots lobbying organization, Citizens For America 1985 <br style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.4;" /><br style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.4;" /> Member of the national executive committee of the Republican National Committee 1981-1985 <br style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.4;" /><br style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.4;" /> Chairman, College Republican National Committee 1981-85 <br style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.4;" /><br style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.4;" /> Chairman, USA Foundation 1983-5 <br style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.4;" /><br style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.4;" /> Chairman, Toward Tradition 1994-2000 <br style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.4;" /><br style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.4;" /> Board of Directors: US Holocaust Memorial Council 1982-87 <br style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.4;" /><br style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.4;" /> Americans for Tax Reform, Member of the Board, 1995 to Present <br style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.4;" /><br style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.4;" /> National Center for Public Policy Research, Member of the Board, 1995 to Present <br style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.4;" /><br style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.4;" /> President Torah School Greater Washington 1993-2000 <br style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.4;" /><br style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.4;" /> President Yeshiva of Greater Washington 2000 <br style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.4;" /><br style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.4;" /> President, Yeshiva College of the Nation's Capital 2000 <br style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.4;" /><br style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.4;" /> President, Eshkol Academy 2001 to Present <br style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.4;" /><br style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.4;" /> Board of Governors, Council for National Policy 1983-87, 2000 to Present <br style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.4;" /><br style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.4;" /> United Seniors Association, Member of the Board, 2000 to Present</strong></div><p style="margin: 1em 0px; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.4;" /><p style="margin: 1em 0px; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.4;"><strong style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.4;"><a href="http://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php?title=Jack_Abramoff:_Profiles" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.4; color: rgb(124, 71, 12); text-decoration: none;">Source Watch</a> Provides some additional facts on Jack:<br style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.4;" /><br style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.4;" /></strong></p><div class="blockquote" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.4;"><strong style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.4;">College years</strong><br style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.4;" /><br style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.4;" />In college, Abramoff organized Massachusetts campuses for Reagan's presidential campaign in 1980. A year later he graduated from Brandeis University and the Georgetown University Law Center. <br style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.4;" /><br style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.4;" />Abramoff was soon elected chairman of the College Republican National Committee with the campaign being managed by Grover Norquist and aided by Ralph E. Reed, Jr.. "It is not our job to seek peaceful coexistence with the Left," Abramoff was quoted as saying in the group's 1983 annual report, "Our job is to remove them from power permanently." <br style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.4;" /><br style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.4;" />Abramoff chaired the CNRC from 1981 to 1985. During his tenure, he "changed the direction of the committee and made it more activist and conservative than ever before," notes the CNRC. [1] (<a href="http://www.crnc.org/page.asp?LinkID=119" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.4; color: rgb(124, 71, 12); text-decoration: none; font-weight: bold;">http://www.crnc.org/page.asp?LinkID=119</a>) In 1982 he also became the executive director of the political action committee of the Conservative Caucus--a position he still held as of early 1990. He also served as chairman of the United Students of America, a rightist student group based at the conservative think tank, the Heritage Foundation. <br style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.4;" /><br style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.4;" />Abramoff next joined Citizens for America (CFA), a Reaganite group that helped Oliver North build support for the Nicaraguan contras. According to the Interhemispheric Resource Center, "CFA produced slick anticommunist publications targeting the Sandinista government which were distributed to interested audiences along with materials of the State Department, the Defense Department, Heritage Foundation, and the Senate Republican Policy Committee. The group also sponsored a major public relations campaign for the Nicaraguan contras, including a 1985 national tour of contra leaders to 200 congressional districts and a barrage of pro-contra aid radio and newspaper ads in 1986." According to a now-declassified document for the United States National Security Council, Abramoff and CFA were assigned responsibility for organizing briefings by contra speakers and telephone trees "to targeted congressional offices encouraging them to vote for aid to the freedom fighters in Nicaragua." [2] (<a href="http://rightweb.irc-online.org/groupwatch/cfa.php" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.4; color: rgb(124, 71, 12); text-decoration: none; font-weight: bold;">http://rightweb.irc-online.org/groupwatch/cfa.php</a>)</div><p style="margin: 1em 0px; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.4;" /><p style="margin: 1em 0px; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.4;">Grover Norquist likes to pull the strings from outside any government office position <br style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.4;" /><br style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.4;" /><a href="http://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php?title=Grover_Norquist" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.4; color: rgb(124, 71, 12); text-decoration: none; font-weight: bold;">Source Watch</a> provides some facts :<br style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.4;" /><br style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.4;" /></p><div class="blockquote" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.4;">Norquist was the Executive Director of College Republican National Committee (CRNC) between 1981-83. <br style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.4;" /><br style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.4;" />"As Executive Director of the College Republican National Committee in the 1980's, he oversaw the transformation of the committee into a conservative grassroots powerhouse for the Reagan administration. Mr. Norquist, Jack Abramoff and Ralph Reed added streamlined the College Republican national structure turned away from the establishment and toward conservatism. <br style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.4;" /><br style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.4;" />"During his tenure, the College Republicans gained a reputation for hard hitting activism. They built and destroyed a pseudo Berlin Wall for the press and printed thousands of posters depicting marching Russian troops with the caption, 'The Soviet Union Needs You....Support a Nuclear Freeze'," a biogrpahical profile notes.[9] (<a href="http://www.crnc.org/aboutCRNC/famousCRs.cfm" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.4; color: rgb(124, 71, 12); text-decoration: none; font-weight: bold;">http://www.crnc.org/aboutCRNC/famousCRs.cfm</a>) <br style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.4;" /><br style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.4;" />As President of Americans for Tax Reform Norquist has used the TAXPAYER PROTECTION PLEDGE as a vehicle to mobilise anti-tax activists and gain commitments from candidates for federal and state office to oppose all tax increases.</div><p style="margin: 1em 0px; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.4;" /><p style="margin: 1em 0px; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.4;"><strong style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.4;">Karl Rove</strong><br style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.4;" /><br style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.4;" /><a href="http://demopedia.democraticunderground.com/index.php/College_Republican_National_Committee" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.4; color: rgb(124, 71, 12); text-decoration: none; font-weight: bold;">Demopedia</a><br style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.4;" /><br style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.4;" /></p><div class="blockquote" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.4;">The Colllege Republican National Committee dates back to 1892, but its modern history starts in the 1965-70 period, when Morton Blackwell served on and off as executive director, succeeded in 1971 by Karl Rove. At that time, the organization became a school for political dirty tricks so notorious that by 1973 George H.W. Bush, then head of the Republican National Committee, was forced to intervene.<br style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.4;" /><br style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.4;" />The next important era in the group's history came in the early years of the Reagan administration, when Jack Abramoff was national chairman (1981-85) and Grover Norquist and Ralph Reed served successively as executive directors. At this time, according to its own website, the CRNC became less establishment-oriented, more conservative, and more activist. Abramoff's activities as chairman included visiting South Africa and establishing a relationship between the CRNC and the National Student Federation, later exposed as a front group for South African military intelligence. <br style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.4;" /><br style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.4;" />According to Robert Parry, the CRNC also had a connection with Reverend Moon during this period.</div></div></div><h4 style="margin: 0px 0px 1em; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.1; font-size: 12.800000190734863px; color: rgb(112, 109, 90); font-family: 'IM Fell English', serif; font-weight: normal; text-transform: uppercase; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">ORIGINALLY POSTED TO <a href="http://www.dailykos.com/blog/EasyRider/" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.4; color: rgb(124, 71, 12); text-decoration: none;">EASYRIDER</a> ON SUN OCT 23, 2005 AT 10:02 AM PDT.</h4>