Official Washington is suddenly awash in jittery philanthropy. Hardly a day passes without congressional members-Republicans and Democrats alike-deciding to give a portion of their campaign contributions to some charitable cause. President Bush is on the bandwagon, too. This is striking, since the holidays are over and the time of politically correct generosity has passed.
Is there something in the water?
Since when do lawmakers give away precious dollars so dearly needed to fund non-stop, multimillion-dollar political campaigns? Since lobbyist Jack Abramoff pleaded guilty to conspiring to buy favors from House and Senate members, among other things. As such, lawmakers are unloading political money with even faintest taint of an Abramoff connection.
In November, Michael Scanlon, an Abramoff lobbying pal and a former aide to shelved House Majority Leader Tom Delay (R-Texas), struck a plea agreement with U.S. law enforcement officials.
Lobbyists around town are aghast, defensively declaring the Abramoff scandal atypical of the ways and means of doing business in the nation’s capital.
Besides being investigated for allegedly ripping off Native American tribes of some $60 million, there is the small matter of a contract to improve wireless coverage in the House. It started several years ago when AT&T Wireless Services Inc. (now Cingular Wireless L.L.C.) and Nextel Communications Inc. (now Sprint Nextel Corp.) contacted a House panel about how to achieve better RF coverage inside the U.S. Capitol.
MobileAccess Networks, an Israeli firm represented at the time by Abramoff’s former Greenberg Traurig law firm, bested San Jose-based LGC Wireless for the House wireless contract. LGC claimed it could have done the House job for less money. That assertion has been disputed. On the hot seat is Rep. Bob Ney (R-Ohio), chairman of the House Administration Committee. Lobbying records show Neil Volz, former chief of staff to Ney and an Abramoff colleague at Traurig, lobbied for MobileAccess (formerly Foxcom Wireless).
Federal prosecutors allege Abramoff showered Ney with a cornucopia of kindness in exchange for legislative help on this and that. Ney insists he was duped by Abramoff.
In October, House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) asked House Speaker Dennis Hastert (R-Illinois) to join her in requesting the acting Inspector General of the House to investigate why MobileAccess was awarded the contract. Hastert, according to a Pelosi spokeswoman, did not respond. The House IG last week declined to comment on whether it had opened a probe.
But hapless Democrats are not gunning for Ney, Abramoff or Scanlon. They’d love to stick it to Delay specifically and Republicans generally.
With the Abramoff affair and other scandals only growing so early in this mid-term election year, it could be difficult to get any meaningful telecom legislation through Congress this year. Lawmakers may be too busy cobbling together a lobbying reform bill.
