Jack (Abramoff) in with Dems? Former Associates Say No

[deadparrot]

"Abramoff Reports to Prison; Officials Focus on Reid, Others," was the headline of an ABC story yesterday reporting that Jack Abramoff, the convicted lobbyist, was dishing dirt on a handful of Democratic senators, Harry Reid (D-NV) in particular.

"Abramoff has offered testimony about his contacts with 'six to eight seriously corrupt Democratic senators,'" ABC News reported, citing "sources close to the federal investigation." One "source close to the investigation" told ABC that $30,000 in contributions to Reid from Abramoff's tribal clients "were no accident and were in fact requested by Reid."

The report was surprising, particularly given that in the thousands of pages of Abramoff's emails, billing records and other documents released over the past two years, there's little evidence that the Republican lobbyist or his team worked very hard to persuade Democratic lawmakers to support their clients, legally or illegally.

Curious to learn more, we called a number of Abramoff's former colleagues from his heyday at the Greenberg Traurig lobby firm to see how the story struck them.

"Jack has not met eight Democrats in Washington," one lobbyist told us.

http://www.tpmmuckraker.com/archives/001997.php

[Kiouni]

1. blah, blah, blah

its always people close to Jack, or a friend of Jack's says... You see the problem right?

[provis99]

2. sorry to go off on a tangent, but another thing that really

pisses me off is the headline: "Abramoff reports to prison". What, he showed up when he felt like it? When his affairs were in order? Why wasn't he zoomed off to prison as soon as the gavel fell on the prison sentence? If he's still got talking to do, he can do it from behind prison bars.

[orleans]

3. hey abc--PROVE IT! what a bunch of crap. and didn't we already

discuss the reason reid got tribal donations/money? not because of abramoff--but because reid represents them too. hey, i donate money to my senators. (not 30 million or whatever the fuck) but i don't have to go through abramoff.

whatever--that tribal business was already covered. and if i remember right, jackoff was taking money from a couple of tribes--playing one against the other.

at least from what i recall