Dear Friends and others:
It really kills me to forward this article by Bill Safire but it
illustrates in detail the damage the Clinton and his cronies are doing to
social justice issues particularly the environment. In 1992, Clinton's
early lead and subsequent nomination by the Democrats were do primarily to
his huge edge in fund-raising which came from some of the worst elements of
Wall Street and environmental polluting Arkansas agri-business. Now we see
that essentially decent men like Babbitt are sucked in.
What is being repeated here is a pattern that I saw as an activists in
NYS's reform movement. The need for money drives strange alliances and
results in ultimate corruption of the movement.
In 1992, while the Sierra Club was fighting to prevent a hospital waste
incinerator from being built in the South Bronx, the Sierra Club's
candidate for US Senator in both the primary and the general election had
has his guru Ethan Geto, who was the consultant for the builders of the
incinerator and Bob's principal fund raiser. Abrams was then Attorney
General and his office gave NO support to the opponents of the incinerator.
The issue was environmental justice then.
Although I certainly supported Bob in the general election against Al
D'Amato, in the primary I personally supported Liz Holtzman. Bob lost
narrowly to D'Amato. He had $50,000 unspent in his campaign account. Later,
Holtzman was defeated for reelection as NYC Comptroller because of
over-reaching in her 1992 fund-raising efforts. Her opponent's campaign was
fueled by in part by bus companies that do business with the City and cause
NYC to have the highest school bus expenses per child of any location in
the country.
Anyone for campaign finance reform?
---------------------------
October 26, 1997
ESSAY / By WILLIAM SAFIRE
The Interior Decorator
WASHINGTON -- Gambling tends to corrupt; political power purchased
by gambling money corrupts absolutely.
Nowhere is the gambling industry's evil more blatant than in its use of
American Indian tribes as fronts, and in its enrichment of politically
adept tribal leaders -- at the expense of other tribes and the reputation
of all Native Americans.
Kevin Gover of Albuquerque is the gambling lobbyist for the Tesuque
(te-SUE-key) Pueblo tribe. On Feb. 20, 1996, Gover met President Clinton at
a White House coffee; the Pueblo of Tesuque subsequently gave $50,000 in
soft money to the Democrats.
Mr. Clinton rewarded the lobbyist with nomination to be Assistant Secretary
of Interior for Indian Affairs. Two weeks ago, Federal Judge James Parker
declared Mr. Gover's client, the Tesuque casino, to be a "criminal
enterprise" using "money that is derived from unlawful conduct."
Thus does crime pay.
Fund-raiser-lobbyist Gover, whose Senate confirmation hearing is scheduled
for Thursday, will be in a position to use Federal power to encourage
generous criminal gambling enterprises to blossom on reservations across
the land.
He'll fit right in at Interior. Bruce Babbitt's domain seems to have been
the Indian fund-raisers' target for a lucrative political fix.
"Talk to O'Connor here," Mr. Clinton said on April 24, 1995, to his closest
aide, Bruce Lindsey, "about his concerns about tribes that he represents."
Patrick O'Connor is a former D.N.C. treasurer whose clients are
gambling-rich tribes in Wisconsin eager to stop three Chippewa tribes from
competing with them with a new casino at a racetrack in Hudson, Wis.
Despite a written warning from an aide that "we legally cannot intervene
with the Secretary of Interior on this issue," Lindsey apparently obeyed
the President's order because wheels were soon in motion to block the
Chippewas. O'Connor and his tribes met with D.N.C. chairman Don Fowler the
following week; Fowler contacted Harold Ickes at the White House and got
him to lean on Bruce Babbitt at Interior. (Ickes professes no recollection
of this.)
Result: Interior ruled against the poorly connected Chippewas, to the
delight of the opposing tribes, which in gratitude for their casino
monopoly kicked in $300,000 to Democrats. The Chippewas sued; a Federal
judge held in March that "there is a distinct possibility that improper
political influence affected" Interior's decision.
Now Secretary Babbitt has some heavy explaining to do. Last year, he told
the Senate he was not influenced by the White House. But this year a
Harvard friend of his, Paul Eckstein, who had made a vain pitch for the
Chippewas, swore that Babbitt told him at the time that the opposing tribes
had contributed something "on the order of half a million dollars" and that
Ickes at the White House had ordered him to make the decision.
Babbitt has now artfully changed his story. "I do believe that Mr.
Eckstein's recollection that I said something to the effect that Mr. Ickes
wanted a decision is correct," he wrote Senator Fred Thompson two weeks
ago. Babbitt, who still loyally denies being influenced, refuses to be
deposed by Senate staff before testifying, preferring that his questioners
be unprepared.
Does this potential bribery touch Bill Clinton? Among the documents that
White House Counsel Charles Ruff improperly fights to keep from view is a
note from the President to chief of staff Leon Panetta described only as
"Hudson casino matter."
Clinton was obviously worried about revelations of influence-peddling as
Election Day approached. Another memo he's hiding under a privilege claim
is dated Oct. 22, 1996, from an associate White House counsel to an aide to
Harold Ickes on "status of Hudson casino litigation." Another came the next
day from Panetta to the President, same subject, answering Clinton's note
by transmitting a memo from a White House counsel to an Ickes aide.
Did the money-hungry President, through his political henchmen Lindsey and
Ickes, put in the fix to his Secretary of the Interior for a $300,000
contribution?
Congress has prodded a reluctant Justice into an inquiry; the specific
information behind that question might induce Janet Reno to seek
appointment of a RICO-minded Independent Counsel.
We can also hope this Clinton exploitation of Native Americans will cause
Senator Ben Nighthorse Campbell to reject the nomination of the lobbyist
for a crooked casino to head Indian Affairs at Interior.
Copyright 1997 The New York Times Company
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THE LIST
Each day I usually begin the day reading the Washington Post and the NY
Times on the WEB. It's provides an easy way to create a clipping file. As
anyone whose been active for more than five years can attest, clipping,
storing and indexing hard-copy clippings is a daunting task. All our homes
overflow from material we just can't throw away. I find on occasion
particularly insightful items which I wish to share with my activists
friends (and others).
This list consists of approximately 545 addresses which include several
individual list servers.Frequently recipients have forwarded my messages to
others so I do not know the true reach of any one message. So far about 15
individuals have requested removal.
It is predominantly Abolition2000, Sierra, Croton Watershed and Green with
a little Rainbow and the Klotz family thrown-in. I will delete anyone who
requests. If you are getting double messages let me know.
We all suffer from overload, I understand and I appreciate the many
individuals who have thanked me for my efforts as well as those who simply
can't handle the total traffic. I switched Abolition2000 to individual
addresses instead of list-serve because that list alone can engender as
many as 40 to 50 messages on a good(bad) day.
JOHN KLOTZ
http://www.walrus.com/~jklotz/
885 Third Avenue, Suite 2900
New York, NY 10022
(212) 230-2162
(718) 601-2044