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The Abramoff scandal isn’t about Bush
2006.01.23 — Government | Politics | by Derek Jensen
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Jack Abramoff. |
News outlets have scrambled in the past several days trying to track down photos of indicted superlobbyist Jack Abramoff with the president. White House spokesman Scott McClellan has been so obtuse about Bush's contacts with Abramoff that journalists are sure there's more to the story. They're eager to catch McClellan in a—well, not a lie, exactly, since he claims the White House just doesn't remember ever meeting Jack Abramoff—let's call it a "calculated vagueness."
McClellan is surely hiding something, but whatever meetings Junior had with Jack are moot. No one in their right mind thinks that Abramoff bribed the president of the United States (and they absolutely did not have sexual relations).
First of all, bribery is Congressional territory. Deal-making and campaign-financing are the bread-and-butter of Congress, and nobody has more influence or a greater need for money, certainly not the president. Maybe if Superman was addicted to crack, he'd be more powerful and money-grubbing, but other than that, Congress has a lock.
President Bush is a fanatical ideolog. He wouldn't change his mind on an issue for love or money. Or facts, for that matter. |
Secondly, President Bush is a fanatical ideolog. He wouldn't change his mind on an issue for love or money. Or facts, for that matter. The man is steadfast in his beliefs, even when the earth rotates out from under him.
Finding a connection between him and Abramoff is of no account, then. The superlobbyist probably only wanted to get close to the president to brag about it to his clients, winning him more fat wads of cash with which to persuade members of Congress to vote his clients' way. The scandal remains with Tom DeLay, Bob Ney, and other Republicans who took money from Abramoff and his clients (other, less crooked, members of Abramoff's firm lobbied Democrats and are unlikely to get indicted).
| The president has plenty of other problems for us to focus on.... |
The president has plenty of other problems for us to focus on, like the fact that he lied to American people about trying to avoid war with Iraq and he approved espionage against American citizens—contravening both the Constitution's ban on unreasonable search and seizure and Congress's special secret FISA court specifically made for legally contravening the Constitution's ban on unreasonable search and seizures.
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