Abramoff-DeLay Mariana Islands Sweatshop Connection

NPR had an excellent story Saturday morning on the the Abramoff-DeLay-Mariana Islands Connection: how Jack Abramoff and Tom Delay managed to head off any serious effort to address sweatshops in the Mariana Islands, where workers were kept prisioner, but manufactuers could label their products "Made in America."

You can listen to it here.

My favorite quote (taken from an ABC 20-20 investigation) is from a speech that DeLay gave to sweatshop owners:

You are a shining light for what is happening in the Republican party and you represent everything that is good about what we are trying to do in America in leading the world in the free market system.

DeLay went on to ensure that the House would never consider legislation dealin gwith abuses in the Mariana's despite a House bill with 228 co-sponsors and a similar bill that had passed the Senate.