Udall Helped Close Sweatshops; Schaffer Caught in Another Lie

Want to know one big difference between Rep. Mark Udall and Bob Schaffer? One has worked for a decade to revoke labor and immigration exemptions from the Mariana Islands and the other worked to implement Jack Abramoff’s plans to keep those exemptions in place. Mark Udall has done the morally correct thing by cosponsoring Rep. George Miller’s initial reform bill in 1999 as well as two successive bills.

Bob Schaffer took the low road when he attacked those brave enough to publicly describe the human rights abuses. His actions turned even more deplorable this year when he recommended the guest-worker program from the Islands as something the U.S. should adopt as a model. A series of lies and distractions have been issued from his campaign ever since that recommendation.

Ending the exemptions should bring the textile industry closer in line to what we expect state-side. That said, it’s not as if the Department of Labor has been advocating for workers here under the Bush administration either. No, it will take a Democratic President and a progressive Congress to enforce the laws we already have on the books. The same laws that have been ignored for seven years.

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In additional Mariana Island sweatshop cover-up news, Bob Schaffer has been caught in an additional lie. An important diary was posted today at SquareState. Previously, Bob Schaffer and his puppet-master Dick Wadhams told the press and the public that Bob’s trip to the Islands while a Representative was handled by Calif.-based Traditional Values Coalition, which Schaffer described as a religious group “concerned with human rights.” Wadhams used this organization as a distraction, saying Bob didn’t know if Jack Abramoff was associated with it. As it turns out, that wasn’t so.

Some hard-working folks went to the CSU Congressional Archive and searched through Bob Schaffer’s records from his term as Representative. According to an August 24, 1999 memo from Susan Wadhams (Dick Wadhams’ since-deceased wife), the Preston Gates D.C. lobbying firm arranged the trip. Preston Gates arranged this trip for their clients, the CNMI, the Saipan Garment Manufacturers, and the Western Pacific Economic Council. The connection comes in quite easily: Jack Abramoff was the lead lobbyist for these accounts. Will Dick Wadhams continue to lie to the public by insisting Schaffer didn’t even know of Abramoff? Puh-leeze!

The same memo contains an itinerary for Schaffer and his wife’s trip to the Islands. Between the touring of historical sites that he’s admitted to and the parasailing pictures and the meeting with government officials, exactly when did Schaffer have time to visit 20 factories? We’ve seen one picture of him in a factory. It seems obvious that there should be additional evidence of his activities, whether in final itinerary form, his extensive investigative note-taking or pictures. If he was doing what he says he was doing. Right now, we only have his campaign’s commentary of activities and a growing body of items showing his activities and the two aren’t agreeing very well.

This fringe rightie has no business representing the people of Colorado ever again.