So, when's the last time someone you barely knew threw a party for you?
There've been numerous articles reviewing what (if any) relationship existed between disgraced lobbyist Jack Abramoff and House Resources Chair Richard Pombo (CA-11). Pombo swears up and down that he's barely met the guy, but I have my doubts about that. Not one of the stories reports the tidbit I found on a LexisNexis search. From last December (2005), attributed to New York Times Company/Wall Street Journal Abstracts:
House Resources Committee will hold potluck holiday party in hearing room this year; committee chmn Richard Pombo and staff last year were treated to expensive party by lobbyist Jack Abramoff
Cross-posted to
ePluribusMedia
If only one of those reporters had done the background research, and asked about this. Would love to hear the answer. How could one construct plausible deniability? Maybe: "Oh, so many people throw parties for us. Surely you can't expect me to remember them all?" Or the old, attack the messenger ploy: "The
Wall Street Journal is part of the liberal media. They're just trying to smear a decent Congressman." Or some other such silliness.
Jack Abramoff told Vanity Fair:
"Any important Republican who comes out and says they didn't know me is almost certainly lying," he says. Such lies are not just, well, lies, but dumb to boot, he adds, for, as his own humiliations suggest, old e-mails never die; they just sit on hard drives, waiting to be subpoenaed and then to be leaked to the press. "This is not an age when you can run away from facts," he declares. "I had to deal with my records, and others will have to deal with theirs."
When Pombo says he barely knew Abramoff, I'm thinking he may be playing things down a bit. Which is just a more polite way of saying he's lying, plain and simple. Here's a few of the reporters who missed this angle on the Pombo/Abramoff story:
Hank Shaw in the Stockton Record:
[Pombo's] been extremely loyal to President Bush and has had to defend himself from criticism about his supposed ties to felonious lobbyist Jack Abramoff.
Supposed? Yeah, I suppose he did know him. He threw him "an expensive party" fer chrissakes!
Erica Werner of the AP:
Pombo spokesman Brian Kennedy disputed the reported contacts, saying direct lobbying by Abramoff "never happened" and the staff-level contacts were "greatly inflated." Abramoff, who pleaded guilty in a congressional corruption investigation, is "an admitted felon" who can't be trusted, Kennedy said.
Fair to say Pombo's probably lying on this one. And shame on reporters like Hank Shaw who missed this in their reporting on the subject.
"I think any of these billing records should be taken with a grain of salt if not dismissed entirely," Kennedy said. He noted that e-mails have surfaced showing Abramoff instructed associates to inflate their billing hours.
Kennedy's been spokesman for the Resources Committee for a few years now. If he didn't go to the Abramoff party, he surely knew about it. Too bad there haven't been any reporters who've asked him about it.
Daniel Weintraub of the Sacramento Bee:
Pombo, chairman of the House Resources Committee, also has ties to Abramoff's firm, though they are not as clear-cut as Doolittle's connections. Instead, the Democrats think he is vulnerable on an issue that crosses party lines in California: the environment. And they have been hitting him hard on it.
I'm not very good at making up these snarky replies. So I'll be happy to solicit readers' suggestions as to other excuses Team Pombo might make up to deny this further evidence of ties to Team Abramoff.
And, of course, it's not too late to donate to corrupt, dishonest Pombo's challenger, wind energy expert Jerry McNerney.