It’s all in the Family
We’d be remiss in our duties if we failed to flag this Sunday NYTimes piece on the family-oriented nature of the Abramoff affair.
The piece points out all sorts of helpful connections (which are fleshed out in detail at TPMmuckraker.com– with articles contributed by ROTM Editors!) between Jack and his brother Robert, Tom Delay and his wife and daughter, Tony Rudy and his wife Lisa, John Doolittle and his wife Julie, and on and on. Here’s the Times:
[Robert Abramoff’s] apparent entanglement in his brother’s business is an example of what investigators say is something remarkable about the criminal inquiry centered on Jack Abramoff and his Washington lobbying network: the degree to which the spouses and other family members of the investigation’s central targets are being caught up in it. Some have dealt with subpoenas and interviews with the Federal Bureau of Investigation, with at least the possibility of facing civil or criminal charges.
Lawyers with detailed knowledge of the Justice Department’s investigation, who were granted anonymity because of rules barring public discussion of grand jury evidence, say that so many of the wives of lawmakers and lobbyists have become tied up in the investigation that F.B.I. agents have begun referring to them as “The Wives Club.”
Surely, part of the reason for involving the spouses is that they generally share bank accounts with their husbands. So by laundering or funnelling money to their wives, these politicos were essentially paying themselves.
But here at ROTM, we can’t help but think that perhaps these DC gangsters were heeding the advice Tony Soprano gave his son AJ, when he menacingly intoned:
“I don’t care how close you are, in the end your friends are gonna let you down. Family. They’re the only ones you can depend on.”
Indeed. Relying strictly on blood relatives is an age-old tradition in these sorts of enterprises. When you’re in business with a set of people that is inherently greedy, corrupt and self serving– like gangsters or Republicans– your family members are simply the only set of people you can count on not to stab you in the back.
Of course, even that can backfire sometimes, like when Michael Corleone had to whack his older brother Fredo in order to protect himself. I wonder if Jack will have to send his brother Robert on a Fredo-style fishing trip in order to save himself from further incrimination? Might be time to say a few Hail Marys, Bob!