More White House links to corruption

Thanks to Shallow Larynx for pointing me in the direction of this piece by Molly Ivins. If you follow the blog, you're familiar with Abramoff and his bilk-the-tribes initiative, which netted him millions of dollars and earned the Native Americans bupkus. Now it looks like K Street's most vile and corrupt lobbyist was charging those very people to shake hands with Fearless Leader. Remember all the GOP tooth-gnashing about Clinton's Lincoln Bedroom guests? You won't be hearing any of that this time....

AUSTIN, Texas -- A jaw-dropping article in The Texas Observer shows that two lobbying clients of Jack Abramoff paid $25,000 to Grover Norquist's group for a lunch date and meeting with President George W. Bush in May 2001. Abramoff brought the Indian chiefs to the White house at the request of Norquist, a leading "movement conservative" in Washington. In addition, Abramoff obtained $2.5 million in contributions from the Indians for a nonprofit foundation run by his wife and himself.

The White House guests were the chiefs of two of the six casino-rich Indian tribes represented by Abramoff and his partner Michael Scanlon, former top aide to House Majority Whip Tom DeLay. The $25,000 check from the Coushatta tribe of Louisiana is made out to Americans for Tax Reform, an anti-tax group founded and directed by Norquist.