Draft Gore 2008 PAC

Susie Madrake (of Suburban Guerrilla was kind enough to send a pointer to the UNITED STATES HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES COMMITTEE ON OVERSIGHT AND GOVERNMENT REFORM, PROPOSED COMMITTEE REPORT of JUNE 11, 2008, 35 pages of high minded investigative righteousness that mentions Indians twice on pages 5, 6 and 11, and once more on page 26, the MMS, or oil, gas, coal and uranium not at all, the IGRA or Indian Gaming not at all, Chad Smith or the BIA not at all, and so on.

The Democrats unwillingness to lift the veil and go beyond deference to the "Senator from Indian Country" is why the efforts of the Congressional Black Caucus should interest, not simply alarm, Indians working towards reform, whether of tribal governments long captured by corporations and long abandoned by distant agency, or of basic economic means to improve the well-being of Indians.

The CQ coverage is here.

Obviously, no one in Waxman's staff reads wampum, or has the smarts or the stamina to go after the issues, so they're just doing a round of, as Dan Burton correctly observes, pin the tail on the elephant.
Dan Burton , R-Ind., accused the committee’s chairman, Henry A. Waxman , D‑Calif., of trying to cause collateral damage and harm perceptions of both President Bush and presumed GOP presidential nominee Sen. John McCain of Arizona.

"Henry's on a mission," said Burton, a former chairman of that committee. "If the White House is bloodied up enough, they think that it will hurt McCain. They want to smack the White House again and again until it starts reflecting on Mr. McCain."

There was a reason Jack was present in a lot of places. Money. A lot of it.

Susie picked up detail on Koch Industries and "The Alliance to Protect Nantucket Sound". Here's our priors:

1. The foxes in the MMS henhouse..., June 27, 2007
2. Blogger Ethics Pannel needed, June 10, 2006
3. Carbon tears, May 19, 2006 (with a nice bit on the windfarms off the Belgian and Dutch coasts -- I get to look at the latter every time I fly into AMS).
4. Koch's Brand of Bozos, May 16, 2006
5. Was Jack Abramoff really an "insider"?, April 18, 2006

One of the great things about this cycle is knowing in advance how many of the Abramoff fish are not going to be fried by either Obama or McCain, and how eager Dems are to look the other way when it comes to Interior, Indians, and Energy.