Last night, Talking Points Memo posted a story documenting Schaffer's long ties to Jack Abramoff's sweatshop industry clients that began with a Jack Abromoff-sponsored trip paid for by money funneled through supposedly Christian front-group Traditional Values Coalition.
This morning, the Denver Post piles on:
The two instances, in which Schaffer endorsed Fitial in ads in island newspapers, show that Schaffer has had close and enduring ties with key politicians on the American protectorate, extending relationships he developed while on a fact-finding mission there in August 1999. They also show that Schaffer was part of a concerted and public campaign by Republicans on the House Committee on Natural Resources to boost Fitial's public career when he became key to extending a multimillion-dollar lobbying contract for Abramoff from the island's government.
It strains credulity for anyone to claim Schaffer didn't know who Abramoff was, had never met him, or that Preston Gates was "just another lawfirm." Schaffer has still not denied any of the charges. In fact, Schaffer has yet to say one word about the controversy.
Dick Wadhams, on the other hand, is beside himself and can't seem to cough up a lucid quote. To the Post, his only response was that the Post was performing a "character assassination." We have news for Wadhams: you can't assassinate a character that is already dead. Schaffer committed character suicide by getting in bed with the sweatshop industry 10 years ago.
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