Pryor headed GOP AG Assn caught shaking down corporations

[BurtWorm]

subject to lawsuits they could prosecute...


http://www.washingtonpost.com/ac2/wp-dyn/A3050-2003Jul16?language=printer



washingtonpost.com
GOP Attorneys General Asked For Corporate Contributions


By R. Jeffrey Smith and Tania Branigan
Washington Post Staff Writers
Thursday, July 17, 2003; Page A01


Republican state attorneys general in at least six states telephoned corporations or trade groups subject to lawsuits or regulations by their state governments to solicit hundreds of thousands of dollars in political contributions, according to internal fundraising documents obtained by The Washington Post.

One of the documents mentions potential state actions against health maintenance organizations and suggests the attorneys general should "start targeting the HMO's" for fundraising. It also cites a news article about consolidation and regulation of insurance firms and states that "this would be a natural area for us to focus on raising money."

The attorneys general were all members of the Washington-based Republican Attorneys General Association (RAGA). The companies they solicited included some of the nation's largest tobacco, pharmaceutical, computer, energy, banking, liquor, insurance and media concerns, many of which have been targeted in product liability lawsuits or regulations by state governments.

The documents describe direct calls the attorneys general made, for example, to representatives of Pfizer Inc., MasterCard Inc., Eli Lilly and Co., Anheuser-Busch Cos., Citigroup Inc., Amway Corp., U.S. Steel Corp., Nextel Communications Inc., General Motors Corp., Microsoft Corp. and Shell Oil Co., among other companies. They also make clear that RAGA assigned attorneys general to make calls to companies with business and legal interests in their own states.

One of those soliciting funds between 1999 and 2001, according to the documents, was Alabama Attorney General William Pryor Jr., a pending nominee by President Bush to the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 11th Circuit. Sources said that a former RAGA employee recently turned some of the fundraising documents over to the Senate Judiciary Committee, which could vote as early as today on his nomination. A source who asked not to be named provided the documents to The Post.

The nomination had already provoked a partisan battle, with Democrats contending that Pryor is a conservative ideologue and raising the possibility of a filibuster.

<snip>

[asjr]

1. GOP

Is the GOP Satan personified?

[denverbill]

2. This fucking sucks.

I read this in the paper this AM. I don't understand why people aren't friggin outraged by this. It's an absolute corruption of the entire legal system. Bribery and extortion. These assholes should be jailed. How can this possibly be legal?

[w13rd0]

3. Qualifications to serve in the Bush Administration...

conflict of interest...check
right wing ideaologue...check
disregard for the 'rule of law'...check
disdain for Congress and a refusal to answer queries...check
belief that the ends justify the means (the means being lies, fraud, manipulation, extortion, terror)...check

Well, certainly sounds like he has all the qualifications...

[trof]

4. My A.G.?

You want to put MY sweet little, god-fearing, pure-as-the-driven-snow, butter-wouldn't-melt-in-his-mouth Attorney General in JAIL?
My homophobic, Christian-Coalition, bush*-loving A.G. in the slammer?
Well!
I just never!
COMMIE!
;-)

[pansypoo53219]

5. i commiserate

but here our AG was elected Guv and the new one is a female DEM. whoohoo!

[trof]

7. As far as I can see

he keeps a relatively low profile in the state. I hardly ever see him in the newspapers or on TV. I didn't know what a mealy-mouthed weasely little dweeb he was until I saw part of his judicial hearings.
Just soooo humble and self-effacing.
bah

[BurtWorm]

8. I'm surprised he hasn't tossed you in jail!

Is irony still legal in Alabama?

You subversive you!

;-)

[sangha]

6. Schumer is the attack dog on this issue

and he's been doing a bang-up job at it.

[WhoCountsTheVotes]

9. The Republicans were just soliciting bribes

If the corporations pony up and pay Republicans, the GOP will not prosecute them when they break the law. Simple really.