Playing both sides against the middle

This Washington Post story reports on Washington lobbyist Jack Abramoff and public relations consultant Michael Scanlon‘s efforts in 2002 working with conservative religious activist Ralph Reed to help the state of Texas shut down an Indian tribe’s El Paso casino, and then Messrs. Abramoff and Scanlon’s incredible activities in persuading the tribe to pay $4.2 million to try to get Congress to reopen it once it had been closed. In the end, Messrs. Abramoff and Scanlon failed to get the casino reopened. Here is an earlier post from Charles Kuffner on the early stages of the investigation into the matter.
H’mm, let’s see now. Work the political process to get a casino closed so that you can then work the political process to get the casino reopened. Not bad work if you can get it.

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