Sunday, January 08, 2006

 

When You Hear Bush & Co. Claiming They Barely Knew Abramoff, Bear This In Mind

In the first ten months of Bush's time in the White House, Jack Abramoff and his lobbying team came to visit him and his staffers over 200 times. That works out to two visits every three days. Abramoff continued to enjoy similar levels of access to the Bush junta right up until the long arm of the law fell upon his shoulder. Oh, and get this: Remember how the right wingers consider Bill Clinton to be evil, slimy, corrupt, yadayadayada? You'd think that if this were the case, he and Abramoff would get along right well, wouldn't you? Well, guess what: They didn't. Check it out:

The reception Abramoff's team received from the Bush administration was in stark contrast to the chilly relations of the Clinton years. Abramoff, then at the Preston Gates firm, scored few meetings with Clinton aides and the lobbyist and the islands vehemently opposed White House attempts to extend U.S. labor laws to the territory's clothing factories.
On the other hand, the slimy, evil, corrupt Abramoff has been working with Bush since well before Bush entered the White House:
The records from Abramoff's firm, obtained by The Associated Press from the Marianas under an open records request, chronicle Abramoff's careful cultivation of relations with Bush's political team as far back as 1997. In that year, Abramoff charged the Marianas for getting then-Texas Gov. George W. Bush to write a letter expressing support for the Pacific territory's school choice proposal, his billing records show. "I hope you will keep my office informed on the progress of this initiative," Mr. Bush wrote in a July 18, 1997, letter praising the islands' school plan and copying in an Abramoff deputy.
Most interesting, eh?


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