Think Progress

Right-Wing Magazine: Veco Oil Scandal Contributed To Lott’s Resignation

Sen. Trent Lott (R-MS) refuses to say why he is retiring from Congress. Many in the media have reported that Lott likely wants to enter the lucrative world of K Street before “tougher restrictions in a new lobbying law” take effect.

But the right-wing American Spectator magazine speculates that brewing corruption scandals may have contributed to Lott’s decision:

The tin-foil-hat crowd was almost immediately pushing a Jack Abramoff angle to the surprise resignation of Sen. Trent Lott. But a more recent scandal brewing — which has already ensnared Sen. Ted Stevens, among others — may also be playing on Lott’s mind.

Lott, Stevens, as well as Rep. Dennis Hastert all have ties to Bill Allen, a larger than life Alaskan businessman who owned Veco, an oil-field services company, and who was a huge benefactor of Republican politicians.

Allen has pleaded guilty to bribing Alaska legislators, including Ben Stevens, the son of Sen. Ted Stevens (R-AK). The elder Stevens is currently the target of multiple federal investigation, including one on his ties to Veco.

Lott continues to stand by Stevens, donating $5,000 from his political action committee to Stevens’s re-election campaign. Lott also has ties to Allen, who accompanied him to the lavish annual “Waterfall Fishing Tournament” in Alaska. Since 1996, at least 10 current and former lawmakers have attended the trip, an opportunity for “the energy industry’s top brass” to influence lawmakers.

In addition to the lawmakers, high-ranking executives from the nation’s top oil firms — including Allen — attended the Waterfall excursions. Companies with business before Congress occasionally provided free trips to Waterfall for lawmakers and top executives on private company jets. Lawmakers may have violated congressional ethics rules by not paying for the trips. Marketplace, which originally reported on the event, noted that it could find no PAC, personal, or campaign payments for the trip from Lott.

Below is a picture of Lott next to Allen at the Waterfall Resort:

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UPDATE: Larry Flynt’s Hustler offers another reason for the senator’s resignation: “Senator Lott has been the target of an ongoing HUSTLER investigation for some time now, due to confidential information that we have received.”



33 Responses to “Right-Wing Magazine: Veco Oil Scandal Contributed To Lott’s Resignation”

  1. Starve-A-Bush_Feed-A-Beaver says:

    Lott is retiring to spend more time with his toupee. Simple as that.


  2. Squegeeboo says:

    So is the Spectator a right wing magazine that is also a magazine with standards? Or is this a once in a life-time kind of article they ran?


  3. Zimzone says:

    Can you say racistfascistasscyst?


  4. dumbstruck says:

    Time to start a defense fund.


  5. celtic cynic says:

    Gee, you don’t really think that Lott has been stuffing cash into the refrigerator, freezer, closet, off-shore banks, etc.?


  6. tombaker says:

    Uh-Oh!!

    Here come the gay hookers!!


  7. Nature Rules says:

    Larry Flynt! Keep at it.


  8. Leftside Annie says:

    Well, if a *rightwing* rag is reporting this, it has GOT to be at least 10 times worse…


  9. Zooey says:

    UPDATE: Larry Flynt’s Hustler offers another reason for the senator’s resignation: “Senator Lott has been the target of an ongoing HUSTLER investigation for some time now, due to confidential information that we have received.”

    I bet it has something to do with that beaver pelt he wears on his head…


  10. Buckie Boy says:

    Rut roh!!! Looks like Lott may have been eating too many scooby snacks uh Benji!!!

    Can it be? Another CLOSET GAY FASCIST REPUKIAN? Don’t tell me it’s so…my, my, this won’t look good for the Gross Old Repukians come ‘08, now will it. One more nail in their coffin.

    Bush/Cheney
    Hague Trials ‘09

    Buck Fush


  11. Zimzone says:

    11,
    Z’str, I thought is was skunk skin, but whatever…


  12. Tony S. says:

    It is scientific fact that only republicans are involved with big-money lobbyists.


  13. Nature Rules says:

    I bet it has something to do with that beaver pelt he wears on his head…

    Comment by Zooey — November 27, 2007 @ 4:40 pm

    You mean a Merkin? LOL


  14. Zimzone says:

    Nature Rules, are you saying Senator Lott isn’t A’Merkin?

    And what other name does a Merkin go by?

    ta-dah!

    BUSH!


  15. Nature Rules says:

    Zimzone, good one. What cums around goes around!


  16. Zooey says:

    You mean a Merkin? LOL
    Comment by Nature Rules — November 27, 2007 @ 4:44 pm

    Exactly. :-D

    I learn something new every day…..


  17. army193 says:

    Lott will not make it in lobby world…….This investigation will be taking down more members of Congress soon……..The Next Sentor is Kit Bond stay tune..


  18. Proud American Liberal says:

    I called it. When it was announced, I said it was because an investigation was getting to close. Lott and Hastert both.


  19. dumbstruck says:

    Look at the photo, I bet he’s wearing that turtleneck to cover up the suck marks on his neck.


  20. Tender Chicken says:

    So all these gay-bashing rethugliscums are nothing but a bunch of closet-cases. That would include our dear president, little Georgie W. Bush too. Don’t kid yourself. Just look at the adoring eyes his boyfriend Alberto G. flashes at his man Bush in every photo taken. What’s sad is not that they’re gay; it’s that they try to hide it and in so doing do their level best to make out and proud gay people second class citizens. So shameful. I bet that Jeff Gannon could talk, if his mouth wasn’t full of republican d**k.


  21. pete says:

    The next couple years are shaping up to provide much amusement as we watch the Reps turn on each other in vain attempts to keep a bit of relevance.


  22. Deep Thinker says:

    Term Limits !!! Term Limits !!! Term Limits !!!It seems to be the only solution the American people have to defend ourselves from these greedy, corrupt, pigs.


  23. Starve-A-Bush_Feed-A-Beaver says:

    So Trent Lott’s toupee is made from the plucked hair of Bush’s pubes? Is that what you guys are getting at? It must be a big honor. Mr. P would be in 7th Heaven to be able to wear one of those Bush toupees.



  24. JosephW says:

    Why can Lott (through his “political action committee”) contribute $5000 to Stevens’ campaign but private citizens are prohibited from contributing more than $2300 to a single campaign?
    If the PACs can “contribute” to a campaign, then they need to be restricted to the same limits that ordinary citizens are.


  25. mo2 says:

    I just spent several minutes looking for photos of Mrs. Patricia Thompson Lott on the net. I found three photos, all very old. No new photo of the couple together, even on his web site. tin foil hat says “beard.”



  26. Bush is a TRAITOR says:

    Maybe Veco rebuilt his porch after Katrina.


  27. ForTruth says:

    Also from the Wiki entry on Merkin:

    Houghton Mifflin’s American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language, 4th edition describes the term’s etymology as stemming from an “alteration of obsolete malkin, lower-class woman, mop, from Middle English; from Malkin, diminutive of the personal name Matilda.”


  28. ForTruth says:

    I think the Repukes look at gay sexual involvement as something Romanesque, like its not for the ladies to be involved in a man’s job, and crap like that. They look at it like a male bonding thing, involving power and control.


  29. Puppyjive says:

    I have a friend who works on the slope in Alaska and he tells me that a whole bunch of congressman are going down for taking bribes from oil companies.


  30. patooty says:

    Larry Flynt’s info and this new oil scandal may put Lott in jail next to Abramoff.


  31. patooty says:

    As we were saying yesterday Lott’s an old toe-tapping pervert like Larry Craig.



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