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ENRON Database mining continues: Buckham

by kfred

Wed Feb 01, 2006 at 09:00:33 PM EST

Among the chaff sorted thru today a few grains to digest appeared:

Edwin Buckham, of Alexander Strategy Group infamy, came to light. Specifically, it appears that some tidy little inside gossip was exchanged among "friends":

From: cynthia.sandherr@enron.com
To: Richard Shapiro
Cc: joe.hartsoe@enron.com, dwatkiss@bracepatt.com
Bcc: joe.hartsoe@enron.com, dwatkiss@bracepatt.com
Date: 10 Aug 2000 11:23 PDT
Subject: RE: Draft Letter to Congress on Wynn Reliability Legislation
Congressman DeLay is with us.....but with the demise of Speaker Gingrich, the role of Committee Chairman has been reinstated. Thus, this to-be Chairman is going straight to the Speaker which poses both a political and House Rules conundrum. Of course, we are also going to the Speaker, the Majority Leader, etc.

commentary :: :: :: buzz-it!

<snip>

You might recall that Congressman Tauzin switched parties with the price tag being many bennies and "secret deals" from Leadership. As of today, Congressman Barton is also on our side (but with the death of his brother, his mother's open heart surgery, his wife's breast cancer scare, etc.) we have not gotten him to refocus on approaching Congressman Tauzin yet. I will do this at the appropriate time. I have kept Ed Buckham apprised of our strategies

Another message with pertinent pieces herein. Oh my! Where's Delay??!?!?!:

Where's Delay?
Cynthia Sandherr@ENRON
08/10/2000 05:50 PM
To: Richard Shapiro/HOU/EES@EES
cc: Joe Hartsoe/Corp/Enron@ENRON, dwatkiss@bracepatt.com
<snippage>
Part of the reason I was pushing to get one or our CEO's to play golf with Congressman Tauzin on the 22nd is he is the key Member pushing the House Leadership to pass the stand-alone bill now to "politically inoculate Republicans." As the likely new House Commerce Committee Chairman; he carries sway. Another approach would be for us to call Entergy to give Congressman Tauzin the same message.

Oh, by all means, let us call ENTERGY!

ENRON Database mining continues: Buckham | 3 comments (3 topical, 0 hidden)

Alexander Strategy Group Background (none / 0) (#1)

For those not familiar (or as obsessed as us at ePluribus) with Buckham or Alexander Strategy Group, this will spell out why they are of interest.

The Alexander Strategy Group (ASG), a Republican Party-associated lobbying and political strategy firm with offices in Washington, DC, and Hong Kong, was founded in 1998 by Ed Buckham, Thomas D. DeLay's former Chief of Staff, "with a huge initial contract that DeLay secured from Enron. (The group also paid DeLay's wife a salary for several years.)"
Source Watch

One of Washington's top lobbying operations will shut down at the end of the month because of its ties to disgraced lobbyist Jack Abramoff and former House majority leader Tom DeLay.
Alexander Strategy Group, which had thrived since its founding in 1998 thanks largely to its close connections to DeLay (R-Tex.), will cease to operate except for a relatively small business-development division, Edwin A. Buckham, the former top DeLay aide who owns the company, said yesterday.
<snip>
Buckham's firm employed DeLay's wife, Christine, for four years. It also benefited by working closely with Abramoff. Abramoff's plea agreement mentioned his close ties to Tony C. Rudy, one of Buckham's colleagues at ASG, identified in the court papers as "Staffer A."
Rudy, a former DeLay aide, worked for Abramoff before joining ASG. According to the plea document, a political consulting firm run by Rudy's wife allegedly received $50,000 in exchange for official actions Rudy took while working for DeLay.
Washington Post

by standingup on Thu Feb 02, 2006 at 12:19:22 AM EST

Recent news on Alexander Strategy Group (none / 0) (#2)

from The Daily Muck on TPMCafee. Looks like we have a "ASG, Abramoff, The Heritage Foundation and Hong Kong" connection.

Quick muck quiz - where was Alexander Strategy Group's only office outside of D.C.? Give up? Hong Kong. Where did Preston Gates establish their first overseas office soon after Jack Abramoff joined? Right! Hong Kong.
Hong Kong's The Standard reported a couple of weeks ago that Tan, the garment manufacturing giant of Saipan, was laundering his payments to Abramoff through a front company in Hong Kong. This piece delves into the very tangled web involving Abramoff, Alexander Strategy (ASG), and the Heritage Foundation.
The Hong Kong operations of ASG and the Heritage Foundation were almost indistinguishable: read the rest at TPMCafee

by standingup on Thu Feb 02, 2006 at 01:23:44 AM EST
[ Parent ]

: Hong Kong (none / 0) (#3)

The Hong Kong connection is kinda strange since the city is located in the communist country of the People's Republic of China.

by susie dow on Thu Feb 02, 2006 at 06:32:08 PM EST
[ Parent ]