January 5, 2006 - Jack Abramoff was working hard in the spring of 2003.  He was representing the Coushatta Tribe of Louisiana and the Mississippi Band of Choctaws both of whom operate casinos in the Mississippi River Delta region.  In January 2002 the Jena Band of Choctaws, a two hundred strong group of poverty stricken Indians living in northern Louisiana made a deal with Louisiana’s then Governor Mike Foster.  The Jena Band would establish a casino near Baton Rouge and the State would get 15.5% of the profits.  Abramoff’s clients opposed the deal and hired the lobbyist to make it go away.  The Republican governor’s backing of the Jena casino meant that the proposal could only be stopped by the Department of the Interior in Washington.  Secretary Gail Norton would have to be the one to stop it.

 Neither the Coushattas nor the Mississippi Choctaws have any interests anywhere near Speaker Hastert’s Yorktown, Illinois district. In May of 2003 Abramoff’s clients donated $20,000 to the Speaker’s campaign funds.  On June 3, 2003 Abramoff hosted a fund raiser for Speaker Hastert held at the lobbyist’s trendy Washington restaurant, Signatures.  It was a coincidence of course that on June 10^th, one week after the fund raiser Speaker Hastert sent a letter to Secretary Norton urging her to kill the Jena Band’s plan by interpreting the law to disallow it.  The Speaker got Majority Leader Tom Delay, Majority Whip Roy Blunt, and Deputy Whip Eric Cantor to sign the letter with him.  When the news broke in the fall of 2004 that Abramoff’s dealings with the Tribes were being investigated the managers of Speaker Hastert’s political funds were surprised to discover that the bill for the fundraiser’s food and drink had never been paid.

 When this week the Center for Responsive Politics identified some $69,000 donated to Hastert by Abramoff, his family, his associates and his clients the Speaker’s office announced that he would donate that amount of money to charity.  The Speaker maintains that his involvement in the Louisiana casino conflict had nothing to do with Abramoff’s donations.  His spokesperson claims that he only became involved at the request of Rep. James McCrery (R-La).   

 Jack Abramoff’s legal troubles and resulting cooperation in the widening corruption investigation is fast becoming a windfall for charitable institutions.  Even the President is getting into the act.  His re-election campaign announced that he is giving $6,000 dollars given by Abramoff, his wife, and the Saginaw Chippewa to the American Heart Association.  The President is keeping the $100,000 that Abramoff raised for him to earn the designation of Pioneer.  American philanthropy will get a big boost from the stampede of politicians rushing to come clean.