Excerpt:
1980s
- 1981 - Elected Chairman of the College Republican National Committee in a campaign managed by Grover Norquist, the executive director of the CRNC.
- 1981 - recruits Ralph Reed as an unpaid intern for CNRC.
- 1981-1983 - With Reed and Norquist, purges "dissidents" and re-writes the CRNC's bylaws to consolidate their control.
- 1983 - Appoints Reed to succeed Norquist as executive director.
- 1986 - After earning law degree, worked for Boardwalk & Associates in Washington, DC as vice president.
- 1986 - Appointed to the Holocaust Memorial Council by President Ronald Reagan [1]
- 1986 - First major lobbyist job for the International Freedom Foundation (IFF) where he recruited a number of so-called useful idiots.
[edit] 1994-1996
- December 1994 - Following the Republican takeover of Congress in the November 1994 elections, hired as a lobbyist at Preston Gates Ellis & Rouvelas Meeds LLP, the lobbying arm of Preston Gates & Ellis LLP, based in Seattle, WA.
- 1995 - takes on the Northern Mariana Island of Saipan as a client. Abramoff and his firm are paid at least $6.7 million by the island's government from 1995 to 2001.[1]
- December 4–12, 1996 - Congressman Tom DeLay staffers Ed Buckham and Tony Rudy go on a trip funded by Abramoff to Saipan.
- December 31, 1996 - DeLay and his family go on a trip arranged by Abramoff to Saipan; the trip itself is paid for by the Saipan government.
http://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php?title=Grover_Norquist#Abramoff_ties.E2.80.94money_laundering_allegations
Excerpt:
Abramoff ties—money laundering allegations
The Associated Press published a story on June 22, 2006, which described Americans for Tax Reform as being used as an obfuscating conduit to Ralph Reed's receiving over one million dollars from a Jack Abramoff client, The Mississippi Choctaws, to keep other casinos from opening as competitors.Reed, who founded the Christian Coalition, would not have been able to transparently receive these funds directly from the Choctaw without alienating his religious base.
- "In Jack Abramoff's world, prominent Washington tax-cut advocate Grover Norquist was a godsend.
- "Moving money from a casino-operating Indian tribe to Ralph Reed, the Christian Coalition founder and professed gambling opponent, was a problem. Lobbyist Abramoff turned to his longtime friend Norquist, apparently to provide a buffer for Reed.
- "The result, according to evidence gathered by the Senate Indian Affairs Committee, was that Norquist's Americans for Tax Reform became a conduit for more than a million dollars from the Mississippi Choctaw to Reed's operation, while Norquist, a close White House ally, took a cut.
- "Without citing any specific group, the Senate panel found numerous instances of nonprofit organizations that appeared to be involved in activities unrelated to their mission as described to the Internal Revenue Service."
http://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php?title=Americans_for_Tax_Reform_and_Jack_Abramoff
Excerpt:
The backround of the questionable funneling of money
Ralph E. Reed, Jr. and Norquist are "implicated in the questionable funneling by Abramoff of more than $4 million of Preston Gates Ellis Native American client funds to back antigambling campaigns run by Reed from 1999 to 2003," Parrish wrote. "In one case involving funds from an Indian casino client, as much as $1.3 million in client funds may have been used to launch a campaign.Involvement of Americans for Tax Reform
At least some of the Preston Gates money was allegedly laundered through Norquist's anti-tax group, Americans for Tax Reform, which took a cut. The point was for Abramoff's Native American casino clients to pay for campaigns that would shut out potential competition from state lotteries or new casinos. Americans for Tax Reform also laundered Reed money from Abramoff client eLottery to help defeat the Internet Gambling Prohibition Act in 2000.http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/William_H._Gates,_Sr.
Excerpt:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Preston_Gates_%26_Ellis
Excerpt:
Formation
In 1883, Harold Preston, born 1858 in Illinois, the son of Brig. Gen. Simon Manly Preston, arrived in Seattle and established his own law practice. Ref: A Volume of Memoirs and Genealogy of Representative Citizens of The City of Seattle and County of King, Washington (New York: The Lewis Publishing Company, 1903), pages 118-120. Together with O.B. Thorgrimson, an attorney originally from Chicago, Preston expanded the practice throughout the early 1900s. In 1949 Jim Ellis joined the firm, and was integral in involving the firm in public service projects for the city of Seattle, and opened the firm's Washington, DC office in 1973. Ellis eventually became a name partner in the firm, which was known in the 1980s as Preston Thorgrimson Ellis & Holman.[3]
In 1924, Roger Shidler and George Harroun established another law firm based in Washington State. William H. Gates, Sr. joined the firm in 1964, and as principal counsel expanded the firm's clients to include high technology, manufacturing, distribution, service and other businesses. By 1990, the firm was known as Shidler McBroom Gates and Lucas.[3]
In 1990, Shidler McBroom Gates and Lucas merged with Preston Thorgrimson Ellis & Holman to form Preston Thorgrimson Shidler Gates & Ellis, renamed in 1997 as Preston Gates & Ellis, LLP.[3]
The firm's Washington, DC office is known as Preston Gates Ellis & Rouvelas Meeds LLP. When it was opened in 1973, partners included Emanuel Rouvelas, former counsel to the Senate Commerce Committee, and former Congressman Lloyd Meeds (D-WA).[3] Among its major clients is Microsoft, which paid PGE over $1,380,000 for lobbying various federal government institutions. During that time the chairman of the firm was William Neukom, who was employed by Microsoft as head of its legal department.[1]
[edit] Abramoff lobbying scandal
From 1994 to 2001, Preston Gates Ellis & Rouvelas Meeds LLP employed Jack Abramoff, a Republican lobbyist later convicted for his illegal activities. [2] Abramoff was hired by partner Emanuel Rouvelas following the Republican takeover of Congress: according to the Seattle Times (1995), although the firm's representatives were half Democratic and half Republican, they "didn't have a conservative, Christian Coalition Republican with strong ties to the new Republican leadership."[4]Abramoff emerged as the firm's star shortly after joining the law and lobbying firm. A press release claimed Abramoff to have influence with US House Speaker Newt Gingrich and Majority Leader Dick Armey. After Abramoff began to have legal troubles, spokespersons for Gingrich and Armey claimed that Abramoff had fabricated the references, and that they did not know him personally.
Preston Gates reimbursed Abramoff for trips he funded to Saipan; the firm was later reimbursed by Marianas officials. When Abramoff left Preston Gates for Greenberg Traurig in 2001, he took with him a team of lobbyists that formed the core of "Team Abramoff".
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Grover_Norquist
Excerpt:
Involvement with Jack Abramoff
According to a 2011 memoir by former lobbyist Jack Abramoff, Norquist was one of Abramoff's first major Republican party contacts.[35] Norquist and Americans for Tax Reform were also mentioned in Senate testimony relating to the Jack Abramoff Indian lobbying scandal which resulted in a 2006 guilty plea by Abramoff to three criminal felony counts of defrauding of American Indian tribes and corrupting public officials. Records released by the Senate Indian Affairs Committee allege that ATR served as a "conduit" for funds that flowed from Abramoff's clients to surreptitiously finance grass-roots lobbying campaigns.[36] Norquist has denied that he did anything wrong, and has not been charged with any crime.
[edit] State and local politics
Norquist's national strategy has included recruiting state and local politicians to support ATR's stance on taxes. Norquist has helped to set up regular meetings for conservatives in many states. These meetings are modeled after his Wednesday meetings in Washington, with the goal of creating a nationwide network of conservative activists that he can call upon to support conservative causes, such as tax cuts and deregulation. There are now meetings in 48 states.[37]In 2004, Norquist helped California Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger with his plan to privatize the CalPERS system.[38] In Virginia's 2005 Republican primaries Norquist encouraged the defeat of a number of legislators who voted for higher taxes
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/andrew-reinbach/super-committee-grover-norquist_b_1106284.html
Excerpt:
Grover Norquist and the Death of the GOP
Posted: 11/21/11 05:32 PM ET
It was Euripides who said "Those whom the Gods wish to destroy, they first make mad."
Grover Norquist should be thinking about that quote from Euripides. Because he's obviously gone mad with power.
He's forced, bullied, and otherwise persuaded most of Republicans in Congress to swear they'll never raise taxes, and he says he's ready to enforce it. If that pledge plunges the federal budget and world's economy into the slough of despond -- well, that's tough. What Little Grover wants, Little Grover gets.
He's probably not thinking about that. He's probably thinking about how close he is to drowning the government in a bathtub. But he should be thinking about it, and about Euripides, because if the Democrats have any brains at all -- and they do have some, anyway -- they can run against that pledge for the next year, sweep the elections, and destroy little Grover in the process.
Here's why. Right now, the Super Committee's failure to do its job and straighten out the nation's finances threatens to kick yet another support from the global house of cards we laughingly called a "system". Together with the molasses-like Euro crisis oozing its way across Europe, the result will give us all a real kick in the pants.
The magic number that supposedly solves all our budgetary problems is $4 trillion in revenues, program cuts, or both -- a magic number the Super Committee was never going to even approximate. Republicans insist the nation's lowest tax rates in 50 years are too high. Democrats refuse to preside over what amounts to national suicide.
The national interest? Who cares?
What the Republicans are really saying of course is that they're afraid of Little Grover and what he calls raising taxes. And they don't really have to be.
Not because Little Grover won't have a fit if they defy him. He will. It's because Republicans can solve this crisis -- and come out of it looking like heroes -- just by keeping their word and letting the so-called "temporary" Bush tax cuts expire -- which is what they promised when they were passed.
And if they don't -- they won't -- Democrats can hammer on the fact that Republicans broke their word, have little honor, and chose disaster over upsetting Little Grover.
This is because allowing the "temporary" Bush tax cuts to expire in 2012 would produce, more or less, the magical $4 trillion, and it's Little Grover's definition of raising taxes that's preventing the Republicans from honoring their word. Master Norquist, you see, says that allowing said cuts to expire as promised is raising taxes, and he's willing to demolish any Republican who says otherwise.
The facts apparently have no place in this matter, so it's a very small step to say -- as many are right now -- that Master Nordquist and his friends at Koch Industries are deliberately destroying the Republican Party -- not to mention the nation -- because they see no reason to be men of honor themselves.
Honor is a quaint notion these days, of course, but in this case, it may prove a useful one, if only because it's not only useful here but, as Henry Kissinger used to say, has the added virtue of being true.
Let every Democrat running for office use these lines as their mantras, and they've got useful weapons that could knock back the right wing for a generation: Your kids are hungry because Republicans broke their word; the Republican's "honor" meant nothing to them; Republicans are afraid of Little Grover.
The bonus: If the Democrats use it, the logic stands a fair chance of breaking Little Grover's stranglehold on a Republican Party that used to be considered the very guardians of fiscal prudence. Certainly, the GOP will blame him for the result.
Nothing's at stake if Democrats don't use it but our future. And all it'll take to use it is a little fortitude -- testicular or otherwise. Of course, that seems to've been in short supply recently in Democratic precincts.
Grover Norquist should be thinking about that quote from Euripides. Because he's obviously gone mad with power.
He's forced, bullied, and otherwise persuaded most of Republicans in Congress to swear they'll never raise taxes, and he says he's ready to enforce it. If that pledge plunges the federal budget and world's economy into the slough of despond -- well, that's tough. What Little Grover wants, Little Grover gets.
He's probably not thinking about that. He's probably thinking about how close he is to drowning the government in a bathtub. But he should be thinking about it, and about Euripides, because if the Democrats have any brains at all -- and they do have some, anyway -- they can run against that pledge for the next year, sweep the elections, and destroy little Grover in the process.
Here's why. Right now, the Super Committee's failure to do its job and straighten out the nation's finances threatens to kick yet another support from the global house of cards we laughingly called a "system". Together with the molasses-like Euro crisis oozing its way across Europe, the result will give us all a real kick in the pants.
The magic number that supposedly solves all our budgetary problems is $4 trillion in revenues, program cuts, or both -- a magic number the Super Committee was never going to even approximate. Republicans insist the nation's lowest tax rates in 50 years are too high. Democrats refuse to preside over what amounts to national suicide.
The national interest? Who cares?
What the Republicans are really saying of course is that they're afraid of Little Grover and what he calls raising taxes. And they don't really have to be.
Not because Little Grover won't have a fit if they defy him. He will. It's because Republicans can solve this crisis -- and come out of it looking like heroes -- just by keeping their word and letting the so-called "temporary" Bush tax cuts expire -- which is what they promised when they were passed.
And if they don't -- they won't -- Democrats can hammer on the fact that Republicans broke their word, have little honor, and chose disaster over upsetting Little Grover.
This is because allowing the "temporary" Bush tax cuts to expire in 2012 would produce, more or less, the magical $4 trillion, and it's Little Grover's definition of raising taxes that's preventing the Republicans from honoring their word. Master Norquist, you see, says that allowing said cuts to expire as promised is raising taxes, and he's willing to demolish any Republican who says otherwise.
The facts apparently have no place in this matter, so it's a very small step to say -- as many are right now -- that Master Nordquist and his friends at Koch Industries are deliberately destroying the Republican Party -- not to mention the nation -- because they see no reason to be men of honor themselves.
Honor is a quaint notion these days, of course, but in this case, it may prove a useful one, if only because it's not only useful here but, as Henry Kissinger used to say, has the added virtue of being true.
Let every Democrat running for office use these lines as their mantras, and they've got useful weapons that could knock back the right wing for a generation: Your kids are hungry because Republicans broke their word; the Republican's "honor" meant nothing to them; Republicans are afraid of Little Grover.
The bonus: If the Democrats use it, the logic stands a fair chance of breaking Little Grover's stranglehold on a Republican Party that used to be considered the very guardians of fiscal prudence. Certainly, the GOP will blame him for the result.
Nothing's at stake if Democrats don't use it but our future. And all it'll take to use it is a little fortitude -- testicular or otherwise. Of course, that seems to've been in short supply recently in Democratic precincts.
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