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This is the sixth in a series of articles responding to three front-page articles in the Denver Post by reporter Michael Riley which attack former Congressman and current Senate candidate Bob Schaffer for a fact-finding trip Schaffer took to the Northern Marianas Islands (“CNMI”) in 1999. It is the second of two notes responding to the Post's second article, dated April 11, 2008.

In case Abramoff isn’t a bad enough name, let’s throw in Tom Delay

Riley then moves on to try to taint Schaffer with the unpopular Tom DeLay, mentioning that DeLay had helped Ben Fitial become Speaker and mentioning an aide of DeLay’s who “was later mentioned in plea agreements…involving Abramoff.” What any of this has to do with Schaffer’s friendship with and endorsement of Benigno Fitial is beyond my grasp. What is clear is the obvious goal of the Denver Post and their reporter to imply corruption by Bob Schaffer without a shred of evidence and without any cause to believe that Schaffer did anything other than exactly what he said he did, for the reasons he said he did.

I asked Governor Fitial about Tom DeLay, to which he responded “I never spoke with Tom DeLay about this (election for the Speakership) or anything other than to help the CNMI.” Fitial reemphasized the point, saying “The only thing I spoke to Tom DeLay about was to help stave off federalization.”

“Congressional letterhead”?

One of the most objectionable and telling pieces of Riley’s “reporting” was his repetition of a left-wing blog’s claim that Schaffer’s endorsement letter was on official “congressional letterhead.” This claim is particularly odious, not only because is it patently false, but because it would also represent a violation of a rule which Congress and Schaffer take very seriously. Schaffer’s endorsement letter can be seen HERE whereas an example of official letterhead (from a current member of Congress) can be seen HERE. Official letterhead for a House members says “Congress of the United States” at the top, and usually “House of Representatives” just below that, like this:

Schaffer’s endorsement letter was not on official congressional letterhead, and the Post reporter’s repetition of that claim implies what the rest of his series of articles demonstrates, namely that he re-wrote and re-printed Democratic talking points which were apparently fed to him by various sources opposed to Bob Schaffer’s Senate candidacy.

Other Republican endorsements of Benigno Fitial

Fitial was indeed endorsed by at least two other Republicans…again, not part of any conspiracy but because they shared each other’s political agendas and their desire to prevent the unions and Democrats from destroying the CNMI economy by destroying its garment industry. Fitial had met a large number of Republicans on a visit to Washington, DC, in 2000, after the “Murkowski Bill” had passed the Senate and Fitial was lobbying the majority party to keep the bill from passing in the House. In a meeting with the Republican Conference, Fitial pleaded with the House Republicans: “Please do not kill the poor people of the CNMI by allowing federalization legislation to pass.”

Again, this was all about the issues, not about Abramoff, DeLay, or anything other than a dedicated public servant doing all he could to counteract what Fitial calls “the venom” of the Democrats leading the charge against the CNMI.

Benigno Fitial and Bob Schaffer endorsed and supported each other because they share views of the proper role of government in society and of the importance of a free-market economy. They are men committed to the “service” aspect of public service. Fitial, in describing his endorsement of Bob Schaffer, called him “the most honest man I have ever met in government” and noted that “nobody who knows Schaffer could conceive of his being involved in anything improper.”

The Post’s outrageous attempt to smear both Schaffer and Fitial with the names of Abramoff and DeLay, and with irrelevant but juicy-sounding innuendo, are beneath contempt and below any standard of professional journalism.

This series will continue with a rebuttal of Mike Riley’s third hit-piece against Bob Schaffer, including laying out the massive corruption of anti-CNMI forces inside the Clinton Administration and at a major law firm which turned its guns on the CNMI’s garment industry.

This is the fifth in a series of articles responding to three front-page articles in the Denver Post by reporter Michael Riley which attack former Congressman and current Senate candidate Bob Schaffer for a fact-finding trip Schaffer took to the Northern Marianas Islands (“CNMI”) in 1999. It is the first of two notes responding to the Post's second article, dated April 11, 2008.

Denver Post reporter Mike Riley’s second hatchet job against Bob Schaffer revolved around Schaffer’s connection to Benigno Fitial, currently the governor of the Commonwealth of the Northern Mariana Islands and formerly its Speaker of the House. As with Riley’s first article, I will debunk or clarify this article a point at a time.

Most of my research for this section of work was a 90-minute interview with Governor Fitial, as well as further interviews with Bob Schaffer. Not surprisingly, their answers both point to two men whose political actions are based on a combination of friendship and a deep commonality of political and economic views, the key source of their acquaintance.

An Abramoff “ally”?

The Post article begins by talking about Bob Schaffer’s 1999 endorsement of Fitial, taking a tone which implied that there was something untoward about that endorsement. That tone is set in the article’s title, “Schaffer twice endorsed Abramoff ally.”

To the extent that Fitial was an “ally” of Abramoff, it is because Abramoff was the CNMI’s hired lobbyist and Fitial found Abramoff to be effective in that role, protecting the CNMI from the damage which Congressional Democrats wanted to do to the islands. A better description than “ally” would be “contractor” or “employee.” Calling Abramoff an “ally” of Fitial’s is like calling an attorney an “ally” of his client. Of course their interests are aligned because that’s the only reason they have any relationship.

Riley says that advertisements which contained Schaffer’s endorsement “show that Schaffer was part of a concerted and public campaign by Republicans,” and that such campaign was in order to help Jack Abramoff.

These claims are fabrication with no basis in reality and are essentially reprinting the propaganda of a left-wing web site. Any decent reporter would know better, as would any decent editor of that reporter’s work.

Regarding the endorsement, Schaffer said “I responded to a request from Ben Fitial directly, not ‘in concert’ with anyone.” When asked why he supported Fitial, Schaffer responded “Fitial was a good candidate, pro-free market, conservative, just what you’d expect a Republican to be, and exactly the type of person you’d expect me or most Republicans to support. The idea that my support was part of a concerted effort is ridiculous.”

When I asked Governor Fitial why he believed Bob Schaffer endorsed him, Fitial answered “Because he believes in what I am doing and in me, and knows that I would do anything and everything to help my people. And because we both believe in God and we both always do what is right.” Governor Fitial also mentioned his and Schaffer’s common interest in education, noting that “we can’t improve the economy of the CNMI without an educated workforce.”

Governor Fitial’s esteem for Bob Schaffer came through in another off-the-cuff remark: “Bob Schaffer and his wife, Maureen, are very classy people. I would like more young people to emulate them.”

The descriptions by both men hardly sound like Bob Schaffer needed, or was part of, any scheme by Republicans to support Fitial. Both Schaffer and Fitial were disgusted by the Denver Post article which, of Riley’s three front-page anti-Schaffer articles, was probably the most desperate example of grasping at straws to try to make Bob Schaffer’s actions seem inappropriate even though they were nothing of the sort.

Riley continues his Democratic Party propaganda by attempting to tie Schaffer’s support for his friend Ben Fitial to Jack Abramoff. Regarding the CNMI issue, I have already demonstrated that Schaffer had no ties to Abramoff beyond Abramoff’s firm having helped organize (but not pay for) some airplane tickets for the Traditional Values Coalition, who sponsored Schaffer’s trip to the islands.

As Riley spent a lot of time discussing Abramoff in his third article, I will be addressing that issue in great detail in upcoming installments in this series. In brief, Governor Fitial’s position on Abramoff is that he “was paid by the CNMI government to represent the CNMI’s interests in the US. He did what he was paid to do: He protected our covenant and staved off the first federalization attempt of the CNMI.”

“Federalization”, which just passed Congress this year, is forcing the implementation of mainland US labor and immigration laws in the CNMI, to the great detriment of the islands and their inhabitants, mostly American citizens.

Then-speaker Fitial supported the renewal of the Preston Gates (Abramoff’s firm at the time) contract because the firm had been successful at fending off the attacks of the union operatives commonly known as Congressional Democrats. Fitial’s interest in Preston Gates was, despite Riley’s continued use of Abramoff’s name to imply impropriety, completely consistent with his goals and his duty to do the best job he could for the residents and citizens of the CNMI.

There were questions raised later about whether Preston Gates overcharged the CNMI for services. Fitial believed that was the case, and took action as governor. According to Fitial, “I instructed my attorney general to file a lawsuit against Preston Gates in the event that they did not satisfy our request for a refund of overpayment.” Preston Gates did comply with the demand for a refund, so the lawsuit was not filed. Does that action sound like someone who is an “ally” of Jack Abramoff, or beholden to any interest other than his duty to the public he serves?

This is the first in a series of articles responding to three front-page articles in the Denver Post by reporter Michael Riley which attack former Congressman and current Senate candidate Bob Schaffer for a fact-finding trip Schaffer took to the Northern Marianas Islands (“CNMI”) in 1999.

Disclosure: I know Bob Schaffer and have contributed to his Senate campaign but I am not and have never been employed on any basis by Schaffer's, or anybody else's, campaign.

In April, the Denver Post ran three front-page articles by reporter Michael Riley attacking former Congressman and current Senate candidate Bob Schaffer for a fact-finding trip Schaffer took to the Northern Marianas Islands (“CNMI”) in 1999.

(The links to the articles in question: April 10, April 11, April 13)

The type of misleading information and partisan rhetoric used in those “news” stories demands response, not only to the facts of the case but also to the likely source of Mr. Riley’s information.

In a series of articles, I shall not only demonstrate the multiple problems with the Denver Post’s stories but I’ll also provide information based on interviews with:
• Bob Schaffer
• A former senior staffer for Bob Schaffer
• Andrea Lafferty of the Traditional Values Coalition
• Benigno Fitial, Governor of the CNMI
• A government official from the CNMI who was involved with many Congressional (and other federal government) visits to the islands, including Schaffer’s visit
• A former Congressional staffer who investigated corruption in the Clinton Administration’s Department of the Interior specifically related to CNMI issue

Liberal web sites such as ColoradoPols.com, TalkingPointsMemo.com, and DailyKos.com also piled on with uncritical acceptance of the Post’s claims as well as incorrect “information” of their own. (For perspective, DailyKos is so far to the left fringe that they call the Denver Post “so pro-Republican”.) While each of these sites has offered commentary worth of rebuttal, most of it is premised on the Post articles, so I will not spend much time discussing those web sites directly.

Additionally, I have obtained documents which were the product of subpoena by Congress regarding officials at Department of the Interior during the Clinton Administration -- people whom I believe are the most likely source, whether directly or indirectly, for Mr. Riley based on their past behavior patterns. A selection of documents will be made available in PDF format as part of this series.

Because most of the people I’ve interviewed for this series of articles work for government or in jobs where they must interact frequently with government, I will not be disclosing their names even though some of them gave me permission to do so if I felt it to be necessary.

At the completion of this series of articles, a series which I expect to be run in about 8 installments, I will make available the entire text of the series in one file.

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The first of the Post’s hit-piece trifecta appeared on April 10, 2008 and was entitled “Abramoff ties cloud Schaffer's '99 fact-finding trip”. The article begins with a misleading implication and continues as thinly-veiled Democratic propaganda against Bob Schaffer.

For those who haven’t been following the story, the articles attempt to tie Bob Schaffer’s fact-finding trip to the CNMI, a trip, which was funded by the Traditional Values Coalition (“TVC”), to Jack Abramoff, and then attempts to make readers believe that Schaffer somehow had ties to Abramoff. Separately, the article presents a description of working and living conditions in the CNMI which was not supported by the findings of people, including Schaffer or others, who went to look into allegations of sweatshops and “forced abortions”, thereby implying that Schaffer supported mistreatment of workers.

I will get into the motivations behind the CNMI allegations in the latter part of this series, but it is important to set the context now: The CNMI’s 1976 covenant with the United States allowed the islands to administer their own labor and immigration systems. This allowed the islands to set lower minimum wages than were required in the 50 states, as well as allowing them to efficiently bring in (and send home) workers. Garments from the CNMI are allowed to have a “Made in the USA” tag in them, giving them advantage over many Asian garment producers in an industry that often had to deal with quotas, and with an American population that from time to time was very interesting in “buying American”. This lower minimum wage meant that the CNMI could produce garments much cheaper than unionized garment factories in the US. And while that translated into huge savings for any Americans who bought clothes, it infuriated the unions and their serfs in the Democratic Party. This was the source of the hatred of the CNMI and especially its garment industry which spurred criminal activity within the Clinton Administration and created the allegations of worker mistreatment which Bob Schaffer and others determined to be almost entirely fictional.

“Partly arranged” by Abramoff?

In the article’s third paragraph, Michael Riley notes that Schaffer “didn’t say that the trip was partly arranged by the firm of now-jailed lobbyist Jack Abramoff”. The implication is that this is something Schaffer should have disclosed. However interviews with former Schaffer staffers and others have made it clear that to their knowledge neither Schaffer nor his staff had any dealings with Preston Gates regarding the trip. The only indication of Preston Gates having even a tangential relationship to the trip was that the airline tickets were possibly purchased through their travel agent. According to a former senior staffer for Schaffer, his former Chief of Staff, Susan Wadhams, noticed the Preston Gates name on the jacket of the tickets and contacted the Traditional Values Coalition and the Ethics Committee to verify that the tickets were paid for by TVC, and only by TVC, and that the trip itself complied with all Ethics requirements. The senior staffer told me that it was extremely unlikely Schaffer would have been involved in that process or those inquiries “because it is the Chief of Staff’s job” to take care of such matters.

Any reimbursement by Preston Gates to TVC for the trip, if it happened at all (since it has never been shown), was and remains unknown to Schaffer, to the Executive Director of TVC, and, as far as I can tell, to the Post reporter.

Near the end of the article, Riley admits that TVC paid for the trip and quotes Dick Wadhams (whose late wife, Susan, was Schaffer’s Chief of Staff at the time) who re-emphasizes that “whatever involvement (Abramoff) had with Traditional Values Coalition wasn't known at the time.” And while Riley then tries to tie TVC to Abramoff, he notes that it was only “later investigations” which made any connection between the two.

No connection to Abramoff

According to the former staffer, “We never worked with Jack Abramoff. As a matter of fact, I never met him until months after Bob retired – and I would have met him had he been involved with our office in any way since I was aware of all of Bob’s meetings. ”.

And according to Schaffer himself, “Remember, most people including me hadn’t heard of Jack Abramoff in those days. Preston Gates was just another lobbying firm.” In fact, after serving three terms in Congress, Schaffer honored his term-limit pledge and did not run for re-election in 2002, whereas the scandals surrounding Abramoff did not come to light until 2005. Schaffer added, “…my trip to the Marianas was paid for by the Traditional Values Coalition. Furthermore, I did not accept anybody else’s schedule as to where and when to go on the island during my investigation of the labor and ‘forced abortion’ claims.”

Indeed, if Preston Gates were close to Bob Schaffer, why did they never, as a firm or Abramoff as an individual, contribute to Schaffer’s campaigns or PAC, as they did for Mark Udall?

Coming in the second article of this series, a detailed discussion of the Traditional Values Coalition, the lack of any evidence of improper behavior by Preston Gates in the CNMI, and the truth about a "palm-studded beach resort".