Ever since Congressman Jim Kolbe (R-AZ) announced his retirement, I’ve been wondering, “How much of the $66 million that Jack Abramoff “redistributed” came Kolbe’s way?” I mean after all Indian gaming was central to this mix of bribery and payoff and Kolbe is from a state with a significant population of first peoples and casinos. Kolbe announced his retirement rather soon after the Repubican ship began to sink with indictments and plummeting polls. Was he afraid he might go down next? Does he think that retirement will exclude him from scrutiny when it comes to examination of the specifics of the culture of corruption?
I don’t have the answers, but the opportune timing seems worthy of investigation. I also wonder how many more surprise retirements will there be?
I’m not alone in this musing. A Democratic Underground post by starroute noted the Tiegga connection and the voting with Abramoff’s better known buddies in an online gaming issue.
Bit of a stretch, really. Even if he has some tangential relationship to Abramoff, I think the real reason is because he continues to get snubbed by the Republicans. He has been there for 22 years, and he has never served as a full committee chairman, we all know the reason why.
Also, the Republican right has been more vocal about his lifestyle. Witness the treatment he got from the Texas delegation at the last Republican convention, and the number of votes that Randy Graf got in the last primary.
I know. But he’s faced the snubbing for a while. I still suspect there is more than the $2000 to the El Paso tribe.
In any case, the race for his seat is going to be an interesting one!