Oil-Soaked Rags Catch Fire
Posted on | August 24, 2008
It’s a little late in the Bush-Cheney Era to start crowing every new smoking guns–too many of those have simply been ignored by the Legislative and Judicial Branches, the media, and the citizenry–but here’s a tawdry little bolus that floated to the surface of Sen. Ted Stevens’ indictment. The senator seems to have used Vice President Dick Cheney to repay the many considerations shown him by an oil executive:
In a conversation secretly tape-recorded by the FBI on June 25, 2006, Stevens discussed ways to get a pipeline bill through the Alaska Legislature with Bill Allen, an oil-services executive accused of providing the senator with about $250,000 in undisclosed financial benefits. According to a Justice motion, Stevens told Allen, “I’m gonna try to see if I can get some bigwigs from back here and say, ‘Look … you gotta get this done’.”
Two days later, Cheney wrote a letter to the Alaska Legislature urging members to “promptly enact” a bill to build the pipeline. The letter was considered unusual because the White House rarely contacts state lawmakers about pending legislative matters.
Read Cheney’s letter here. This is how deals are struck these days. Ted is the longest-serving Republican in the US Senate, with decades of experience in corruption. Dick is a former petroleum and energy executive with a lust for secrecy, money and the blood of kittens. A marriage made in heaven!
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