'Green knee-deep in political cesspool'

Turning up the heat on Green to act on scandal

The song and dance team of Rep. Mark Green and Mark Graul, Green's campaign manager, is going to have to come up with some fancier footwork if the duo hope to avoid the issue of their ties to convicted Republican lobbyist Jack Abramoff and indicted Rep. Tom DeLay.

Writing in the Capital Times, John Nichols says:

DeLay and Abramoff scandals both provide evidence that a culture of corruption has taken hold in the Washington of Tom DeLay and Bob Ney. And Mark Green is at least knee-deep in it.

If the congressman wants to be taken seriously as a contender for governor of a state where voters still set high standards for public responsibility, he needs to detach himself from Ney, dispose of the DeLay money and distance himself from Graul. Even then, Green's actions and associations will continue to raise questions about whether he is able to put the public interest ahead of the partisan ties that have pulled him into the political cesspool.

The Democratic Party isn't letting Green and Graul keep up their dance, either. Party Chair Joe Wineke has sent Green copies of the e-mails showing Graul as the recipient of free tickets from Abramoff. Green says he's never asked Graul about it.

From the party's release:

To date, Green has turned a blind eye to Graul’s involvement with Abramoff, saying he has never asked Graul whether he knew Abramoff or any of his associates, adding “there is no reason that he would.” [Capital Times, 12/13/2005]

Yet documents clearly show Graul, as Green’s congressional chief of staff, repeatedly requested and received skybox ticket freebies from Abramoff for NBA games, concerts, and even a WWF event. [TalkingPointsMemo.Com, 10/10/2005]

Graul has changed his story every time he has been asked about the Abramoff tickets, first denying it and then excusing the behavior by saying it is illegal in Wisconsin to take freebies, but “it’s legal in Washington.” He even admitted to the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel that he was the contact person to receive freebies. [Milwaukee Journal Sentinel, 10/21/2005]

Wineke also responded to attempts by Green’s campaign manager to discredit the authenticity of the emails, saying the documents were obtained by a legitimate journalist who acquired the records from a legitimate source during the course of his reporting. Joshua Micah Marshall, the publisher of TalkingPointsMemo.Com where the documents are posted at http://talkingpointsmemo.com/docs/graul6.html, is a respected journalist who writes for The Hill newspaper and has been published in newspapers from The New York Times to The Boston Globe to The Los Angeles Times.

“No matter how much Mark Graul tries to cover it up or discredit the documents, the fact is email records show Graul listed as a recipient of free tickets from Abramoff’s firm at Abramoff’s approval,” Wineke said in his letter to Green. “I hope that you are able to find the time to discuss this matter with Mark Graul, and that you can provide answers to these questions to the people of Wisconsin.”