Lobbyist Target of Several Investigations

[Pirate Smile]

Lobbyist Target of Several Investigations

By NANCY BENAC
The Associated Press
Saturday, April 23, 2005; 12:45 PM

WASHINGTON - Jack Abramoff is a man with a million connections and not many friends. The uberlobbyist's dealings are the subject of tangled criminal and congressional investigations that are attracting outsized interest, in part because of his close ties to House Majority Leader Tom DeLay, R-Texas.

DeLay, who took a number of overseas trips allegedly arranged or financed by Abramoff, once famously described the lobbyist as "one of my closest and dearest friends."

-snip-
A shorthand summary of Abramoff's alleged dealings tends not to sound too shocking: collecting big checks from American Indian tribes for whom he performed limited work; steering clients' contributions to outside groups in which he had a personal interest; sending politicians on junkets to curry favor.

"What sets this tale apart, what makes it truly extraordinary, is the extent and degree of the apparent exploitation and deceit," Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz., said at a congressional hearing last fall at which Abramoff repeatedly invoked the Fifth Amendment.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A11643-2005Apr23.html

[nothingshocksmeanymore]

1. And ten years from now Abramoff will be some kind of hero in the news

just like fucking Micheal Deaver

[randr]

2. That may depend

on if he hands over his files and emails.
If he is left to hang out and remains the only fall guy, he is apt to bite the hand that fed him.

[AlCzervik]

3. There is no way that Abramoff isn't talking

he's going to take them all down with him, it's just a matter of time. One felt swoop and Delay, Reed, Cornyn and Norquist could be just a bad memory.