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Busting Abramoff

There are a lot of differences between the McCain gang and the Abramhoff crew. For one thing, McCain's influence peddlars charge less. For another, when they take money from casino-operating American Indian tribes, they deliver.

Sunday's New York Times (28 SEP 08) reports that "McCain’s inner circle played a behind-the-scenes role in bringing Mr. Abramoff’s misdeeds to Mr. McCain’s attention -- and then cashed in on the resulting investigation."

It also reports "For senior McCain advisers, the [Abramoff] inquiry allowed them to collect fees from the very Indians that Mr. Abramoff had ripped off. And ... enabled Mr. McCain to confront political enemies who helped defeat him in his 2000 presidential run while polishing his maverick image."

You see, "two of Mr. Abramoff's closest associates, Grover Norquist, who runs the nonprofit Americans for Tax Reform, and Ralph Reed, the former director of the Christian Coalition, ran a blistering campaign questioning Mr. McCain’s conservative credentials." So, while he now uses his assault on Abramhoff to bolster his maverick reformer credentials, at the time, he may have been motivated by the opportunity for revenge.

And, of course it doesn't hurt that some of his friends have been able to step in and replace Abramoff as "consultants" on the subject of how best to "communicate" with legislators with huge influence over laws and agencies governing the establishment and operation of Indian owned casinos.

The senator should be grateful the financial markets went into the tank to take the attention off this piece of investigative reporting.

There was a time when I thought this guy would be better than Bush. Hmm.