Is there any Republican not tainted by Abramoff? Even the Washington Post's hilarious new conservative blogger
is implicated. Josh Marshall:
Little did I know this Ben Domenech gambit from the Post was a secret plot to create the grist for more Abramoff blogging.
You see, it turns out the Domenech family came in for a number of Bush administration appointments. Not only Ben, but Ben's dad, Doug, who was White House liaison to the Department of Interior.
Or to put it more colloquially, White House guy to make sure Jack Abramoff got what he wanted with the Indians and the Pacific Island stuff.
Wayne Smith was the point man for Indian casino policy at the Department of Interior. He ended up having kind of a rough ride over at Interior. And, according to Smith, as reported last year in the Denver Post, Domenech told him "we had to pay attention to [Jack] Abramoff, because otherwise the religious right and (Ralph) Reed are going to come up and bite us, and our whole base will go crazy. They will light up our phones, shut down our phone lines."
According to Smith, Domenech was the conduit for Abramoff operative Italia Federici. Said Smith: "Doug would come down and say, 'Italia called and Jack wants this' That's how it all happened internally."
I wonder if the Post thought their lame efforts at "balance" would result in such tragic hilarity. I wonder how the paper's staff are feeling about their paper's credibility right now.
Me, I hope Ben stays. This is fun. As Jane over at Firedoglake says, he'll be the present that keeps on giving.