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Bob Schaffer

Bob Schaffer's Son May Face Discipline At School For Racist Facebook Page

Andrew Tilghman | August 6, 2008, 9:24AM

Looks like its not only Colorado Senate Candidate Bob Schaffer (R) whose troubled by his son's Facebook page.

University of Dayton officials said Tuesday, Aug. 5, they are considering charging student Justin Schaffer for a violation of the Standards of Behavior for posting offensive information on his Facebook page.

The 19-year-old son of Republican Senate candidate Bob Schaffer of Colorado on Monday apologized for an entry that had the words "High Five ... Who's Gay" over a photo of a waving Democratic presidential candidate Sen. Barack Obama, D-Ill. It also had a picture of the Pyramids with the words "Slavery Gets (expletive) Done."

UD said the Code of Conduct standard calls for students to respect all members of the community and the community at large.

Sister Annette Schmeling, vice president of student development and dean of students, said she will have an initial conversation with Schaffer about the postings and "explore the ways his Facebook page is not showing respect."

"We are addressing it and we expect to begin the adjudication process before classes start on August 20," Schmeling said in a written statement.

Over at the main TPM blog, Josh has a pretty thorough summary of the implications a "Slavery Gets Shit Done" image has on a candidate who has previously been tied to sweat shop labor in the Mariana Islands.

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Topics: Bob Schaffer, Jack Abramoff

Bob Schaffer

Bob Schaffer's Son Apologizes For Obnoxious Facebook Page

Andrew Tilghman and Kate Klonick | August 5, 2008, 1:06PM

The son of Colorado GOP Senate candidate Bob Schaffer is causing his dad a little embarrassment on the campaign trail this week.

Nineteen-year-old Justin Schaffer publicly apologized for putting up posters on his Facebook page including one declaring "Slavery Gets Shit Done."

Among the Facebook page additions are a plethora of images that mock Barack Obama -- painting him as Muslim, elitist, homosexual and a terrorist. One even goes so far as to compare the presumptive Democratic candidate for president to the cereal-box character "Count Chocula."

The page also includes several pro-gun images. One "bumper sticker" shows an image of Jesus holding an M-16 in front of a Confederate flag, with the words "What Would Republican Jesus Do?" Another features a bevy of different kinds of guns with the words, "Celebrate Diversity" underneath.

Schaffer, an economics major at the University of Dayton, issued an apology to a local news station in Colorado that first reported the story:

"I do not agree with the sentiment or content of the offensive material, especially the 'bumper sticker' that references slave labor. It is clear that my actions were juvenile, disrespectful, and a mistake on my part.
"The offensive materials directly contradict the values that my parents taught me and are forbidden in my parents' home. My Facebook page is solely my responsibility, and I am saddened that my actions have reflected poorly on my sisters and parents."

His father spoke to 9NEWS on the phone after an event in Glenwood Springs Monday evening and said, "My wife and I have initiated a process of firm and severe discipline with our son."

"Cap'n Bootyplunder," as one friend referred to the younger Schaffer in a wall post, is just 19, yet a number of his "bumper stickers" refer to drinking games and alcohol. His interests include "being cool, girls."

The images come from a website called www.schafferfamilyvalues.com, where an unknown party mirrored Schaffer's Facebook page so it could be displayed publicly.

A few highlights from "Justin Schaffer's Adventures in Facebook" after the jump.

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Topics: Bob Schaffer

Bob Schaffer

Bob Schaffer Changes Story On Iraqi Kurdistan Oil Deal

Andrew Tilghman | July 17, 2008, 5:16PM

First Bob Schaffer says he didn't know.

Now he says he did.

Last year Colorado senate hopeful and former Representative Bob Schaffer (R) helped broker an oil deal between Aspect Energy, where he serves as vice president, and the Kurdish Regional Government in Iraq -- a deal the US State Department says undermines Iraqi security and US interests.

The U.S. government didn't want people like Schaffer and Aspect Energy and others going into Iraq and cutting deals directly with the Kurds because it would undermine the federal government in Baghdad, which was still debating how to share the country's oil reserves. President Bush for years has pushed Iraqis to pass a national law permitting foreign oil companies to invest in Iraq and providing a system for distributing those revenues.

Back on July 9, Schaffer insisted that he was completely unaware that his firm's deal was at odds with U.S. foreign policy. "We didn't experience any discouragement," Schaffer said at the time.

But reporters in Colorado have been kicking the tires on Schaffer's story and last Sunday, Schaffer's campaign manager, Dick Wadhams, started to back away from what Schaffer said.

Wadhams, however, refused to answer questions about whether Schaffer knew or should have known that State Department officials wanted the Iraqi government to work out a national oil policy before any contracts were awarded.

Now, as these oil deals are starting to get attention on Capitol Hill, Schaffer is changing his tune too.

He's now conceding that he did know about State Department opposition but is still insisting (correctly it seems) that Iraqi law didn't specifically forbid such deal.

The Pueblo Chieftain reports:

He acknowledged that U.S. officials in Baghdad did not want U.S. oil companies doing business directly with the Kurds, but said that under the country's new federal system, such a working relationship was allowed.

So why did Schaffer change his story now?

That might have something to do with this report from the Grand Junction Daily Sentinel. The reporter started asking questions about Sen. Wayne Allard (R-CO) and found out that last year the senator asked the State Department about oil deals with the Iraqi Kurds in reference to Aspect Energy.

And on May 25th, 2007 the State Department responded to Allard in no uncertain terms ...

In that regard, we have conveyed to all parties, the Kurdish Regional Government, the central Iraqi Government, and international oil companies that signing deals before such a law is passed will complicate efforts of the parties to pass a good law. We strongly believe that having competing oil and gas investment laws will be both bad for companies and for Iraq.

Though the Allard story was published the day after Schaffer floated his new version of events, it seems likely that he may have gotten word that the story was coming.

We called Allard's office to ask whether he relayed the State Department's message to Schaffer last year. His spokesman was unsure.

"The senator communicates with former Congressman Schaffer [and others from the delegation] so much, I'm not sure of what he conversations he might have had at what time. So I don't want to be inaccurate and say he spoke with Mr. Schaffer about it at this time because I don't know," said Allard spokesman Steve Wymer.

Wymer said he'd get back to us if he hears anything else.

That answer's not surprising. Allard is retiring and, as a fellow Republican, presumably wants to see Schaffer win his seat in the Senate. If he does remember passing on the word to Schaffer, he probably isn't eager for that fact to come out.

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Topics: Bob Schaffer

Bob Schaffer

Bob Schaffer Helped Out With Kurdish Oil Deal Opposed By US State Department

Andrew Tilghman | July 10, 2008, 6:26PM

Bob Schaffer voted for the war in Iraq in 2002, then left Congress and went to work for the oil men hoping to profit from it.

We recently learned that the energy company that the Colorado Republican went to work for in 2003, Aspect Energy, is among the handful of companies who signed deals with Iraq's Kurdish Regional Government last year.

Those oil deals were officially opposed by the Bush administration, but maybe tacilty endorsed behind closed doors.

Schaffer visited Iraq's Kurdish region in November 2006 along with other officials from Aspect Energy.

State Department officials say those oil deals have threatened security in Iraq by undermining the federal government in Baghdad, which about 150,000 U.S. troops are now helping to prop up.

Schaffer said he had no idea that U.S. officials formally opposed to such deals.

Schaffer said he was unaware the State Department had warned energy firms not to strike oil deals with the Kurdistan Regional Government at the time of his visit. "We didn't experience any discouragement," Schaffer said.

Reader EL points out that Schaffer's ties to big oil have been a big campaign issue for him in his race for the Senate this year.

Late Update The Daily Sentinel in Colorado has a taped interview of Schaffer talking about his trip to Iraq and the oil contract.

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Topics: Bob Schaffer, Oil

Bob Schaffer

Schaffer Denies Securing Earmark That Led To Fraud

Andrew Tilghman | June 23, 2008, 4:49PM

It took him a few weeks, but Colorado Republican and Senate candidate Bob Schaffer finally spoke publicly about the recent conviction of a former business associate for defrauding the EPA.

Specifically, Schaffer said he had no involvement in securing the $3.6 million earmark that led to the fraud conviction of Colorado businessman Bill Orr.

He spoke to a reporter from the Rocky Mountain News:

"I did not advocate his earmark. In fact, I was unaware of his earmark," Schaffer said, adding he voted against the bill that contained the earmark.

We'd been trying to get Schaffer to talk about that 2000 earmark for weeks. After a federal jury in May concluded that the National Alternative Fuels Foundation was a scam that was bilking taxpayer dollars with junk science, we called every lawmaker from the Colorado delegation at that time. Schaffer, who served on the group's board of directors after leaving the House, was the only one who wouldn't return our calls.

One of Schaffer's political friends, Scott Shires, told the Rocky Mountain News that Orr got the federal money with help from an out-of-state lawmaker.

Shires said Orr told him the earmark was inserted into the bill by a key House committee staffer at the direction of a non-Colorado congressman, and that a "very expensive bottle of whiskey" changed hands.

A new twist in his story is that Schaffer now says he was a paid board member. Previously, his campaign had denied he received any money in that role. Schaffer said he was paid about $1,500 for the several months he spent serving on the board of directors from about December 2004 to March 2005.

The EPA froze the NAFF grant in January 2005, after paying out about $2 million to the group. Schaffer said Department of Justice investigators interviewed him about the NAFF in February 2005, just before he resigned his position on the board in March.

Schaffer's says he signed on with the NAFF at the suggestion of his pal Shires, a longtime GOP operative in Colorado who was serving as NAFF's salaried treasurer. Shires and Schaffer have known each other for years and Shires has served as the registered agent for one of Schaffer's campaigns.

Shires was in federal court today getting sentenced for a misdemeanor charge connected with the NAFF investigation. A judge gave him a year's probation and a $3,450 fine for failure to file a tax report. He'd pleaded guilty in 2006 and agreed to testify against Orr.

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Topics: Bob Schaffer

Bob Schaffer

Bob Schaffer's Still Not Talking About that $3.6 Million Earmark

Andrew Tilghman | June 3, 2008, 6:48PM

We're still at it trying to figure out which lawmaker was behind that $3.6 million earmark that led to last week's conviction of a Denver businessman on charges of criminal fraud.

As we told you last week, we think it might have been Colorado Republican Senate candidate Bob Schaffer.

Schaffer was in Congress when the earmark was awarded to the little-known not-for-profit founded by Bill Orr, who was convicted last week. And when Schaffer left Congress, he went on to become a director for Orr's group, the National Alternative Fuels Foundation, where his political buddy Scott Shires was treasurer. Shires pleaded guilty and testified against Orr.

Today we called Thomas Vanek, a former staffer for the House Science Committee's subcommittee on energy and environment, who testified at Orr's trial. He oversaw the authorization of the $3.6 million earmark back in October 2000.

I asked Vanek whether Orr received any help from members of Congress in securing the earmark.

"He may have gotten a member of Congress or two involved to get a thumbs up. I don't recall," said Vanek, who is now a senior policy advisor at the Department of Energy in Washington.

More specifically, I asked, do you think Bob Schaffer could have been involved in the earmark?

"He may well have been involved. Typically there would be a member involved. I'd say it's certainly possible. Likely? Who knows," Vanek said.

There's not much documentation tagged to earmarks, especially back then. Often influence is excercized verbally rather than on paper. With almost eight years distance, determining precisely who was involved back then is tough.

Usually, lawmakers are eager to take credit for bringing millions of dollars back home. But that's not the case here. We've contacted all eight members of the Colorado Congressional delegation from 2000, including the two we couldn't track down last week: former Sen. Ben Nighthorse Campbell and former Rep. Joel Hefley, both Republicans.

None of the lawmakers recalled any involvement with the National Alternative Fuels Foundation or its $3.6 million earmark.

So that leaves Schaffer. We've been calling everyday for a week now, but nobody from his campaign has gotten back to us.

Why doesn't Bob Schaffer want to talk about that earmark?

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Topics: Bob Schaffer

Bob Schaffer

Who's Behind That Mysterious Earmark?

Andrew Tilghman | May 30, 2008, 7:33PM

So who actually secured that $3.6 million earmark for the National Alternative Fuels Foundation back in 2000 -- the one that a federal jury in Denver this week concluded was part of a fraud?

The foundation collected more than $2 million in federal funds after promising to create a new, clean-energy fuel for automobiles and turning in bogus science to the EPA to back it up.

Keith Ashdown, the chief investigator for a group called Taxpayers for Common Sense, said he's been looking into the NAFF earmark for a few days and can't find any record of who wedged that $3.6 million into a massive appropriations bill.

"We need to know who got this money because this is a serious case of fraud. They basically gave the money to a bunch of crooks who ripped off the federal taxpayers," Ashdown said.

Once again, Colorado Senate candidate Bob Schaffer's campaign office didn't return our phone call today.

He's the one we really want to ask. Schaffer was in Congress when the earmark was awarded to the little-known not-for-profit founded by Bill Orr, who was convicted this week. And when Schaffer left Congress, he went on to become a director for the NAFF, where his political buddy Scott Shires was treasurer. Shires pleaded guilty and testified against Orr.

When asked by a local reporter, Schaffer's campaign manager, Dick Wadhams, denied the then-Congressman played any part in securing the earmark. But Schaffer hasn't responded to any of these questions and we'd prefer to hear it from him directly.

An unnamed source told the Denver Post that a Congressional staffer slipped the money into the bill.

Since we didn't hear from Schaffer, we called up the other Colorado legislators from those days and asked if they recalled anything about the earmark or Orr. So far, five of the eight members of the 2000 delegation have denied any role in securing the earmark. We haven't been able to reach two former members of the delegation. And then there's Schaffer, who isn't talking.

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Topics: Bob Schaffer

Bob Schaffer

Jury returns Conviction in Case of Business Tied to Bob Schaffer

Andrew Tilghman | May 29, 2008, 6:18PM

Colorado Senate candidate Bob Schaffer's business buddy was convicted on 22 counts in federal court last night.

That doesn't bode well for the Republican's campaign, since Schaffer served on the board of directors while prosecutors said the National Alternative Fuels Foundation was scamming money from the government.

Bill Orr, the former president of the NAFF, could face federal prison time for claiming to develop a clean alternative automobile fuel and then using junk science to get federal money.

Local TV in Colorado reports some testimony:

"The more we measured it, the more we found his fuel was just like any other fuel," said Dr. Tom Reed. ...
Orr admitted he paid himself more than $500,000 of the federal funds during two years of research and development work at a small laboratory in Golden. He said he obtained the grant with the help of Congressional aides whom he met while working on other fuel and environmental issues.

Congressional aides?

Schaffer was in the House at the time. We called his campaign manager, Dick Wadhams, a couple times this week to ask specifically whether then-Congressman Schaffer had any role in securing that $3.6 million earmark in late 2000. He hasn't returned the calls.

A longtime Colorado political operative, Scott Shires, has already pleaded guilty in the case and will be sentenced later this month. Shires is listed as a key player in a couple of Schaffer's campaigns from recent years.

Democrats in Colorado are stepping up the pressure. Although the case hasn't gotten much attention, a local group called ProgressNowAction is trying to make the link:

"Schaffer may have helped lobby the EPA for these fraudulent grants and the public needs to know the truth," Michael Huttner, Executive Director of ProgressNowAction, wrote in a press release today. "We believe that Schaffer either knew or should have known that the President of his organization was violating the law when he lobbied Congress and received millions of dollars based on false documents."

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Topics: Bob Schaffer

Bob Schaffer

Colorado GOPer Bob Schaffer Tied to Federal Criminal Investigation

Andrew Tilghman | May 27, 2008, 3:00PM

Last we checked in with Bob Schaffer, the GOP's Senate candidate in Colorado was fending off news reports about parasailing in the Mariana Islands on Jack Abramoff's dime while supposedly personally investigating the plight of foreign workers there.

Now we learn about a federal criminal case in Colorado against former business and political associates of Schaffer's involving government contracts with a nonprofit foundation where Schaffer was a member of the board of directors.

Schaffer, a former House member who is battling with Rep. Mark Udall (D-CO) to replace the retiring Sen. Wayne Allard, has not been accused of any wrongdoing. But the federal prosecutor handling the case told TPMmuckraker in a telephone interview that Schaffer was added to a witness list in the federal fraud trial of Bill Orr, a Denver businessman accused of bilking the government out of more than $2 million.

Orr's trial is currently underway, and the jury has been deliberating since last week. Schaffer could still be called to testify in Orr's sentencing if Orr is convicted.

Orr successfully lobbied Congress in 2000 for a $3.6 million earmark, which he said he would use to develop a new clean-energy fuel that would emit less pollution. It's not yet known which member of Congress inserted Orr's earmark. Prosecutors say he "falsely represented" the scientific tests that convinced the EPA to turn over more than $2 million of the earmark money. Orr had created a separate not-for-profit group called the National Alternative Fuels Foundation to utilize the federal money.

And that's where Schaffer comes in. After leaving Congress, Schaffer was a "director" at the NAFF from October 2004 to March 2005, according to his Senate financial disclosure form. That's not a very long time, but it overlaps with the time frame when prosecutors say the NAFF was wrongfully accepting government cash -- from December 2001 through December 2004.

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Topics: Bob Schaffer

Jack Abramoff

President Signs Bill Overhauling Immigration Laws for Marianas

Paul Kiel | May 8, 2008, 4:31PM

Unfortunately for Bob Schaffer, it doesn't look like the U.S. will be adopting the guest worker system from the Norther Marianas as a model any time soon. From the AP:

Workers in the Mariana Islands will receive the protection of U.S. labor law under a bill signed Thursday by President Bush.
Debate over whether to extend federal labor and immigration law to the Marianas, in the northwestern Pacific, had been sullied by reports of sweatshop labor and past associations with the lobbying scandal surrounding Jack Abramoff, whose firm was hired by the islands to oppose the changes.

The measure, approved by Congress last month, creates a federally run guest-worker program in the U.S. Commonwealth of the Northern Mariana Islands, which includes Saipan and 13 other islands north of Guam.

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Topics: Bob Schaffer, Jack Abramoff

Jack Abramoff

Schaffer Echoed DeLay on Mariana Immigration

Paul Kiel | April 25, 2008, 2:13PM

You know that Bob Schaffer thinks he's getting a bum rap. The Colorado Republican Senate candidate says he's never met Jack Abramoff, but more than anything, he says his comments that launched the controversy were taken out of context.

Speaking to a talk radio host earlier this week, Schaffer said that he hadn't said that "I endorse everything that goes on in the [Commonwealth of the Northern Mariana Islands]" -- meaning forced abortions, and other human rights abuses. He'd meant "a very narrow aspect of the CNMI's, of the commonwealth's, immigration process, and that was a pre-process of qualifying foreign labor in their home country before they're given entry visas to set foot on American soil."

And that's true, sort of. In his original comments to The Denver Post, Schaffer had been asked about guest-worker programs. And as a successful model for the U.S., he'd pointed to the Marianas, saying "prequalifying foreign workers in their home country under private- sector management" works "very well" there.

It was a comment that mirrored those of ex-Rep. Tom DeLay (R-TX), Jack Abramoff's staunchest ally in Congress, ten years before. From The Houston Chronicle in 1998:

Rather than impose more regulation on the [Marianas], DeLay said, the United States ought to adopt the islands' business and labor practices by creating a guestworker program of its own 'where particular companies can bring Mexican workers in' to fill jobs that Americans won't take. DeLay said the workers could be paid at 'whatever wage the market will bear.'

DeLay had just returned from a tour of the Marianas, where he'd rung in the New Year. Abramoff, of course, had organized the trip, and his clients, the Marianas government and garment manufacturers there, had paid for it. In an interview with the Chronicle, "Delay said he saw nothing wrong with accepting the trip, and said Abramoff, who went on the trip as well, was just 'doing his job (as a lobbyist).'" DeLay remains under federal investigation for his ties to Abramoff.

Beyond the free trips, the Marianas' reliance on private sector management had a clear philosophical appeal to conservatives which Abramoff was keen to exploit. But doing so meant ignoring a host of evidence and findings that the Marianas' guest worker system was at the heart of the abuses there.

A report by the Immigration and Naturalization Service in 1997, for instance, did not find that the system was working "very well" there.

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Topics: Bob Schaffer, Jack Abramoff

Must Read

Today's Must Read

Paul Kiel | April 23, 2008, 10:08AM

People have been giving Bob Schaffer, the Republican candidate for Senate in Colorado, a hard time about his advocacy on behalf of the Northern Mariana Islands. But Schaffer thinks it's about time to give credit where credit is due: after all, he braved an interminable flight to the end of the earth to investigate human rights abuses.

But the trip was organized by Jack Abramoff, you might say, and has been demonstrated to have been just another cog in Abramoff's lobbying strategy. Abramoff's goal was to keep the federal government from spoiling the Marianas' "perfect petri dish of capitalism," and a key tactic was to attack Clinton's Interior Department to distract from the human rights abuses on the islands. Schaffer was a more than willing participant.

Schaffer took to the airwaves earlier this week to air his grudges on a local conservative talk radio program. The Denver Post had done him wrong, he said, by covering the issue with such clear bias.

But more than anything, he's not getting credit for going where so few other lawmakers dared to go:

And by the way, I'll tell you there's 435 members of Congress, these reports had been in circulation throughout the 90s, and there weren't very many who went and investigated them the way I did. I don't owe anybody any ... any kind of remorse or regret for investigating these abuses firsthand....
This is a controversial issue, this island has been at the source of great political conflict for quite a long time, on a number of levels, not just these allegations of sweatshops and so on, but there's a big political controversy taking place there about the sovereignty and relative independence that this commonwealth has compared to other states, or even compared to other U.S. protectorates.

So, a lot of people in Congress would walk away from that and not even look into it because of the controversy. I frankly didn't care, and went and saw what I saw, and followed my own instincts and inclinations based on both favorable and unfavorable reports about the island.

Of course, this might carry more heft if Abramoff hadn't been constantly ferrying lawmakers, staffers, and their families over to the Marianas in the late nineties -- some 85 people in all by mid-2000. It turns out that it wasn't that hard to lure people over for a free trip to tropical islands.

Abramoff didn't sponsor all the trips. Like, say, the one taken by then-Sen. Frank Murkowski (R-AK), who returned outraged by the conditions there and spent the next several years trying to pass a bill to reform the labor and immigration laws on the Marianas (Abramoff was able to block it with the help of his House Republican friends). But somehow those who took the Abramoff organized trips didn't come back so angry.

Omitting the fact that documents show that he knew Abramoff's lobbying firm had made the travel arrangements for his trip, Schaffer says that nobody led him around by the nose while he was on the islands. It was five days of unfettered and unrelenting access, he says:

Nobody led me around there, nobody showed me a sanitized version of what they wanted me to see. My wife and I, and a staffer, and the two individuals from the Family Values Coalition led an investigation according to what I as the member of Congress thought was the best way to spend five days.
We worked around the clock by the way and conducted dozens and dozens of interviews, both on-site and off-site.

Ignore that picture of him parasailing with his wife during his visit there and it's an inspiring evocation.

You can read a full transcript of portions of the interview below. The audio is here.

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Topics: Bob Schaffer, Jack Abramoff, Must Read

Jack Abramoff

Schaffer: What Forced Abortions? I Didn't See Any Forced Abortions

Paul Kiel | April 21, 2008, 12:39PM

Bob Schaffer's Jack Abramoff problem isn't going away.

Ever since the Colorado Republican Senate candidate declared that he thought the guest worker system used in the Northern Mariana Islands was so great that it ought to be exported to the mainland, the media has been on his back. And now a conservative organization has jumped into the fray, a spokesman for Colorado's Right to Life telling The Denver Post that Schaffer's boosterism for the Marianas meant he was no pro-life advocate: "The pro-life movement will no longer give a pass to candidates like Bob Schaffer who look the other way when Chinese women are forced to abort their children."

Schaffer's response to the comment was twofold. First, he made clear that he didn't question the veracity of federal investigations that found instances of Chinese guest workers being forced to get abortions. But he wants everyone to know that he did his due diligence as a crack investigator when he went on his trip to the islands in 1999 -- which was organized and managed by Jack Abramoff, the Northern Mariana Islands government, and the garment manufacturers. And, try as he might, he just couldn't find any evidence of it:

Schaffer, who visited the Marianas in 1999 while in Congress, said allegations of forced abortions were among the things he looked into on that trip.
"I absolutely did not look the other way on this issue," Schaffer said, saying he interviewed "dozens" of workers and met with local religious leaders about the topic....

Schaffer said during his visit he tried to determine how often abortions occurred.

"In five days, I did not observe a forced abortion or meet anybody who had any knowledge of them," he said, adding that no subsequent examples were ever brought to him.

The comment from Colorado's Right to Life has sparked something of an intra-pro-life activist battle, with Colorado's Citizens for Life calling Colorado's Right to Life's criticism "simply irrational."

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Topics: Bob Schaffer, Jack Abramoff

Jack Abramoff

In 2000 Hearing, Schaffer Executed Abramoff Lobbying Strategy -- Again

Paul Kiel | April 15, 2008, 6:46PM

Add this to the growing catalog of former U.S. Rep. Bob Schaffer's actions on behalf of the Commonwealth of the Northern Mariana Islands (CNMI), Jack Abramoff's longtime client. In a July 2000 House resources committee hearing, Schaffer -- now a GOP candidate for U.S. senator from Colorado -- took the lead in interrogating two officials from the Interior Department's Office of Insular Affairs about alleged political activities on the job.

One of those officials was Allen Stayman, formerly the director of the Office of Insular Affairs in the Interior Department, and, as a persistent proponent of increased federal regulation of immigration and labor conditions on the islands, Abramoff's nemesis.

"We intend to use the hearings to impeach Stayman and his campaign against the CNMI," Abramoff wrote in a 1998 memo to Willie Tan, a garment manufacturing mogul who operated a number of plants on the islands. The Office of Insular Affairs, "led by Stayman, has been the main source of difficulty for the CNMI," the memo said.

Schaffer had enthusiastically enacted Abramoff's strategy in a 1999 hearing. Schaffer charged that Office of Internal Affairs officials had secretly paid laborers to participate in a protest against conditions on the islands when the Abramoff-organized Congressional delegation (including Schaffer) arrived.

The Abramoff strategy was still in effect in 2000. In a May 2000 billing statement to the Marianas, Abramoff wrote: "Continued close monitoring of OIA scandal developments and used opportunities thus provided to advance CNMI arguments against [legislation that would strengthen labor laws on the islands]."

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Topics: Bob Schaffer, Jack Abramoff

Jack Abramoff

Schaffer Played Attack Dog against Exploited Marianas Worker

Paul Kiel | April 14, 2008, 7:21PM

Republican Senate candidate Bob Schaffer swears he's never met Jack Abramoff. But his track record of serving as a key ally for one of Abramoff's star clients, the Northern Mariana Islands, makes it clear that the two had a surprising overlap of interests over a number of years.

This weekend, The Denver Post detailed how Schaffer had beautifully orchestrated Abramoff's lobbying strategy for the islands in a September, 1999 Congressional hearing.

Schaffer told the Post that his "were questions that occurred to me at the time listening to the testimony." But it's apparent from the course of the hearing that's not true.

In a 1998 memo, Abramoff had laid out that strategy, which concentrated on attacking Interior Department officials who had been advocating stricter immigration and labor laws on the islands. Flying lawmakers on junkets to the islands, Abramoff wrote, was "one of the most effective ways to build permanent friends on the Hill." The September hearing occurred just weeks after Schaffer's Abramoff-organized trip to the islands.

Perhaps even more remarkable, though, was the form that Schaffer's attack took against Interior officials. Human rights activists had arranged for Nousher Jahedi, a Bangladeshi laborer who'd been robbed by human traffickers on his way to the Northern Marianas, to appear at the hearing.

Schaffer's aggressive questioning of Jahedi brings to mind comments that Rep. Ralph Hall (R-TX) entered into the Congressional record in 1997 -- comments that were shown to have been prepared by Jack Abramoff. Hall said that one of the key test cases of abuse on the islands, the testimony of a fifteen year-old girl who'd been forced to work for a local nightclub, was being distorted. She "wanted to do nude dancing." Hall has also said he never met Abramoff.

In his prepared statement, Jahedi told the committee that he'd paid a $7,000 "recruitment fee" to get a job on the islands, a U.S. territory, but that his recruiter had robbed him of $1,700 at gunpoint in the Philippines, and then demanded an additional $29,000 when the group of Bangladeshis finally reached the islands. When they could not pay, they were turned loose and found themselves "homeless and destitute."

Schaffer led the questioning of Jahedi. In a clearly choreographed allotting of time by the Republican members of the committee, Rep. John Doolittle (R-CA), a key Abramoff ally who chaired most of the hearing, ceded all of his questioning time for Schaffer to grill Jahedi.

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Topics: Bob Schaffer, Jack Abramoff

Jack Abramoff

Schaffer Staffer Mum on Ties to Marianas Gov

Paul Kiel | April 11, 2008, 10:43AM

Yesterday we detailed Republican Senate candidate Bob Schaffer's ties to the Northern Mariana Islands, Jack Abramoff's prize client, and particularly the islands' governor, Benigno Fitial.

The Denver Post followed up and put the question to Schaffer as to why he'd been so loyal to a little island territory thousands of miles away. The answer? Quit asking. From the Post:

Schaffer campaign manager Dick Wadhams declined Thursday to discuss his candidate's role in island politics. "The Denver Post continues its character assassination of Bob Schaffer," he said.

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Topics: Bob Schaffer, Jack Abramoff

Jack Abramoff

Schaffer Was Key Ally for Marianas

Paul Kiel | April 10, 2008, 6:24PM

When Republican Senate candidate Bob Schaffer freely offered earlier this week that the Northern Mariana Islands, notorious for human rights abuses and sweatshops, were a great model for a nationwide guest worker program, it seemed to be coming out of the blue. But a look at Schaffer's time in the House (where he represented Colorado's 4th District from 1997 through 2003) shows that he was one of the most reliable allies for the islands, which were represented for most of that time by lobbyist Jack Abramoff.

The Denver Post reported today on a trip Schaffer took to the islands in August of 1999. The trip was nominally funded by the Traditional Values Coalition, though like all the other junkets to the islands, it was really organized by Abramoff.

Schaffer's spokesman Dick Wadhams told the paper that Schaffer has never met Abramoff or spoken to Abramoff. But Schaffer was a remarkable ally for the islands nonetheless, especially for a lawmaker from Colorado. My call to the Schaffer campaign this afternoon was not returned.

In October of 1999, for instance, Schaffer wrote a letter to Ben Fitial praising him and endorsing him for election into the commonwealth's legislature. The letter, written on Congressional letterhead, was published in the islands' newspaper The Saipan Tribune alongside two other endorsements from Reps. John Doolittle (R-CA) and Don Young (R-AK) four days before the election. You can see those here. Doolittle is under investigation for his ties to Abramoff, and one of Young's former aides on the House transportation committee has pleaded guilty to taking bribes from Abramoff.

As has been reported, Fitial's election was crucial for Abramoff, who had recently lost the lobbying contract for the islands. After Fitial was elected, Abramoff sent two associates of then-Rep. Tom DeLay (R-TX) to the islands in order to make sure that Fitial was elected Speaker. The Los Angeles Times reported in 2005 that Delay aide Michael Scanlon (who's since pleaded guilty as part of the Abramoff investigation) and former Delay aide-turned-lobbyist Ed Buckham (who remains under investigation for his ties to Abramoff) were able to convince two legislators to switch their votes to Fitial with promises of federal appropriations. Fitial subsequently led the effort to reinstate the contract with Abramoff.

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Topics: Bob Schaffer, Jack Abramoff

Jack Abramoff

Senate Passes Bill to Reform Immigration in Northern Mariana Islands

Paul Kiel | April 10, 2008, 4:43PM

Whoops. Just days after Republican Senate candidate Bob Schaffer touted the Northern Mariana Islands as a model for a national guest worker program, the Senate voted overwhelmingly to pass a massive omnibus bill that included a provision to overhaul the Marianas' immigration laws. The bill passed on a 91-4 vote.

The bill will extend U.S. immigration laws to the islands and establish a federally administered guest worker program there -- quite the opposite of what Schaffer said he thought ought to happen: "I think members of Congress ought to be looking at that model and be considering it as a possible basis for a nationwide program."

The reason for the overwhelming vote, of course, is because the islands are notorious for human rights abuses, particularly the exploitation of guest workers in slave labor conditions. Lobbyist Jack Abramoff, with the help of key House Republicans like ex-Rep. Tom DeLay (R-TX), was able to squelch similar legislation for years, even despite bipartisan support in the Senate.

Of course one of his main tools for persuading lawmakers was sponsoring trips over to the islands. As The Denver Post detailed today, Schaffer, then a congressman, traveled there in 1999 in an Abramoff-planned trip and declared himself unconcerned with what he found: "The workers were smiling; they were happy." That's a picture from his visit above.

Update: Ouch. In a statement just out from Rep. George Miller (D-CA), who has been seeking to pass such legislation for literally a decade, he applauds passage of the bill and notes that with Abramoff and DeLay gone, "[v]ery few people would defend the status quo in the CNMI, which has done such damage to workers and their families over the years." Except Bob Schaffer.

Miller's full statement is below.