Garrett Award from Those Accused of Fraud

I completely forgot about this: While poking at the award Representative Scott Garrett just received, the folks over at Retire Garrett pointed out that back in 2006, the folks at Citizens Against Government Waste were cited in a Senate report for committing fraud against taxpayers. From the Washington Post in 2006:

Five conservative nonprofit organizations, including one run by prominent Republican Grover Norquist, "appear to have perpetrated a fraud" on taxpayers by selling their clout to lobbyist Jack Abramoff, Senate investigators said in a report issued yesterday.

The report includes previously unreleased e-mails between the now-disgraced lobbyist and officers of the nonprofit groups, showing that Abramoff funneled money from his clients to the groups. In exchange, the groups, among other things, produced ostensibly independent newspaper op-ed columns or news releases that favored the clients' positions.

[snip]

The report bolstered earlier revelations that Abramoff laundered money through the nonprofits to pay for congressional trips and paid Norquist to arrange meetings for Abramoff's clients with government officials including White House senior adviser Karl Rove.

This reaffirms my criticism of Garrett turning to Grover Norquist for talking points after I exposed the New York Times study he was citing as being fabricated.

While it doesn't change the fact that I like CAGW's Pig Book, this does shed some light on why they oppose those deficit neutral bills. While it appears no charges were ever brought, considering this was at the height of the Bush Administration's politicization of the Justice Department, we can't be surprised.