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Sent: Wed, 7 May 2008 8:29 pm
Subject: [ctrl] Love Connection? Abramoff and the D.C. Madam
Love Connection? Abramoff and the D.C. Madam
by Roger Shuler Page 1 of 1 page(s)
http://www.opednews.com
Recent days have brought two major justice-related stories. Could they be
connected? Let's take a look.
First came a guilty plea from former Justice Department official Robert
Coughlin on conflict-of-
interest charges connected to disgraced Republican lobbyist Jack Abramoff.
Then came word that Deborah Jeane Palfrey, better known as the D.C. Madam, had
apparently committed suicide at her mother's home in Tarpon Springs, Florida.
In Legal Times splendid account of the Coughlin plea, an e-mail exchange
between two Abramoff lobbyists is cited. The lobbyists are Kevin Ring and
Padgett Wilson, and Ring is telling Wilson about a celebration to honor Justice
Department officials who helped bring home $16 million for an Abramoff client,
the Mississippi Band of Choctaw Indians. "Come to the show, baby," Couglin
says. Here is how Wilson responds:
"Are there any tickets left?" asked Wilson, now director of governmental
affairs for Georgia Gov. Sonny Perdue. He then submitted:
"And as for those DOJ staffers, those guys should get anything they want for
the rest of the time they are in office -- opening day tickets, Skins v.
Giants, oriental massages, hookers, whatever."
So there you have it: One Abramoff associate indicating to another that
prostitutes are to be part of the pay off for Justice Department officials who
further the sleazy Team Abramoff cause.
Then a few days later, we learn that Ms. Palfrey, who ran one of the most well
known high-end prostitution services in the D.C. area, is found hanging in a
shed behind her mother's mobile home.
Does this
prove that Palfrey's death was something other than a suicide, which is the
official version from Tampa-area law enforcement? No. But could a reasonable
mind take these two events and ask, "Is this one heck of a coincidence--
the public learns that Abramoff lackies evidently were plying Justice
Department officials with hookers and then a few days later one of the D.C.
areas most renowned practitioners of the prostitution trade is found dead?"
Time magazine was first out with a story saying Palfrey had discussed the
possibility of suicide with a writer named Dan Moldea. "She wasn't going to
jail, she told me that very clearly," Moldea said. "She told me she would
commit suicide."
But Moldea's
account does not square with Palfrey's own words. One Web site presents audio
of Palfrey saying she would not commit suicide and that she probably would be a
victim of a murder made to look like a suicide.
The Coughlin case also brings to mind the case of former New York Governor
Eliot Spitzer, who resigned after getting nabbed in a prostitution-related
investigation. Is anyone investigating the possibility that Team Abramoff, and
their "friendlies" in the Justice Department, violated federal law regarding
the transport of prostitutes over state lines? That's apparently what got
Spitzer into doo-doo. What about folks in the Justice Department, the very
organization that led the Spitzer organization?
A major theme of the Bush Justice Department scandal has to do with double
standards. Actions that become federal crimes when "committed" by a Democrat
are ignored when committed by Republicans, or people associated with GOP
supporters.
Could a serious investigation into the Coughlin case and the D.C. madam suicide
unearth evidence of a particularly noxious double standard?
Here is something else to keep in mind regarding the D.C. madam death: Hanging
is a fairly unusual form of suicide for a woman. According to statistics at
suicide.org, the two most common methods of suicide for women, by far, are
poisons (overdosing, etc.) at 37.8 percent and firearms at 32.4 percent.
Hanging, strangulation, and suffocation are grouped together and come in third
at 19.7 percent.
But if we can assume that true hanging makes up only one-third of that group,
it seems that only a little more than 6 percent of female suicides use the
method found in the D.C. Madam case.
Note: In our first post on the Coughlin matter, we noted that one news source
had identified Coughlin as a member of the Justice Department's Public
Integrity Section and that he had been involved in the Paul Minor prosecution
in Mississippi. A source close to the Minor case tell us that the quote that
led to that report was misunderstood. Our source says Coughlin apparently was
not part of the Public Integrity Section and had no role in the Minor
prosecution.
www.legalschnauzer.blogspot.com
I live in Birmingham, Alabama, and work in higher education. I became
interested in justice-related issues after experiencing gross judicial
corruption in Alabama state courts. This corruption has a strong political
component. The corrupt judges are all Republicans, and the attorney who filed a
fraudulent lawsuit against me has strong family ties to the Alabama Republican
Party, with indirect connections to national figures such as Karl Rove. In
fact, a number of Republican operatives who have played a central role in the
prosecution of former Alabama Governor Don Siegelman (a Democrat) also have
connections to my case. I am married, with no kids and two Siamese cats. I am
the author of the blog Legal Schnauzer. The blog is written in honor of Murphy,
our
miniature schnauzer (1993-2004)who did so much to help my wife and me survive
our nightmarish experience with corrupt judges. I grew up in Springfield,
Missouri, and I am pretty much a lifelong St. Louis Cardinal baseball fan. I've
lived in Birmingham for almost 30 years and have adopted the UAB Blazers as my
Southern college football and basketball team to follow. Also, follow East
Tennessee State basketball. An avid reader, both fiction and non-fiction.
Influential writers on public affairs are Kevin Phillips, Michael Lind, Thomas
Edsall, E.J. Dionne, Molly Ivins, and Scott Horton.
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