He Doesn't Recall?

So where are these photos? Why doesn't someone find out why the President can't recall?

Convicted superlobbyist Jack Abramoff influenced White House actions while his firm wooed administration officials over expensive meals and plied them with sports tickets, according to a House of Representatives committee report released Monday.

Abramoff, who's cooperating with federal prosecutors after pleading guilty in an expanding corruption investigation, previously had reported that his firm had more than 400 contacts with White House officials.

After receiving new White House documents and speaking with witnesses, the House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform said Monday that staffers had verified 80 of the contacts Abramoff reported and uncovered 70 others despite White House assertions that Abramoff had overblown his administration connections. The report also detailed unreleased photos of Abramoff meeting with President Bush on six occasions. Bush has said he doesn't remember Abramoff.

"The new documents and testimony show that Mr. Abramoff had personal contact with President Bush, that high-level White House officials held Mr. Abramoff and his associates in high regard and solicited recommendations from Mr. Abramoff on policy matters," the committee said.

The committee, however, added that it had "obtained no evidence" that Abramoff lobbied the president directly.

Administration officials have denied repeatedly that Abramoff held any sway over the administration. They asserted that Abramoff's claims of contact, as reported in billing records to Indian tribe clients, demonstrated his propensity for exaggeration.

On Monday, White House spokesman Tony Fratto called the report "warmed-up leftovers" and questioned the news media's interest in it.

Am I alone in wondering how it is that such a thing is possible? I was alive during the 1990s, and if the shoe were on the other foot, the outcry over those photos and the indignation over such a ridiculous "can't remember" denial would be everywhere. As in, on TV, in the newspapers, why, even in them there magazines they used to have. There would be a special counsel appointed by 4 PM in order to get to the bottom of where those photos exist and what the chain of custody of them is in terms of the White House Office of the Special Photographer and all that. There would be teams of FBI agents poring over the South Lawn by dinner time.

Granted, there really wasn't much of an Internet back then, but come on. If this was 1995, we'd hear screaming and chest beating from conservatives to see those photos and to "hear the oval office tapes" of any and all conversations between Abramoff and the President.

Even if there really weren't any...

--WS

What The Hell Is Really Going On HERE?

While no one was awake or paying attention, the White House went to court:

FROM MSNBC: WASHINGTON - The Bush administration is laying out a new secrecy defense in an effort to end a court battle about the White House visits of now-imprisoned lobbyist Jack Abramoff.

The administration agreed last year to produce all responsive records about the visits "without redactions or claims of exemption," according to a court order.

But in a court filing Friday night, administration lawyers said that the Secret Service has identified a category of highly sensitive documents that might contain information sought in a lawsuit about Abramoff's trips to the White House.

Abramoff? We're still dealing with issues related to Abramoff? Talk about a story with legs. One would have thought that Jack would be sitting in his cell, having washed his hands of this and finished telling everything he knew.

But no, it gets better:

'Sensitive Security Records'
The Justice Department, citing a Cold War-era court ruling, declared that the contents of the "Sensitive Security Records" cannot be publicly revealed even though they could show whether Abramoff made more visits to the White House than those already acknowledged.

"The simple act of doing so ... would reveal sensitive information about the methods used by the Secret Service to carry out its protective function," the Justice Department argued.

"This is an extraordinary development and it raises the specter that there were additional contacts with President Bush or other high White House officials that have yet to be disclosed," said Tom Fitton, president of Judicial Watch, a conservative watchdog group that filed the suit. "We've alleged that the government has committed misconduct in this litigation and frankly this is more fuel for that fire."

A response by White House spokesman Trey Bohn referred to the Secret Service, saying, "We have nothing to add to the USSS. position as stated in the court filing."

Unadulterated bullshit, that's what this is. The White House is on the cusp of getting caught doing something ELSE that betrays the Constitution, ignores the rule of law, and does nothing but feed money into the Republican political apparatus.

Your Republican Party at work.

Will Abramoff STILL be a relevant issue on 2008? It's starting to look like he will be.

"I don't know him," Bush said at the presidential news conference in January 2006. "I've never sat down with him and had a discussion with the guy."

After Bush's comments, Abramoff wrote an e-mail to the national editor of Washingtonian magazine saying that Bush had seen him "in almost a dozen settings, and joked with me about a bunch of things, including details of my kids. Perhaps he has forgotten everything, who knows."

Another lie, another example of pure corruption, another stain on a record full of stains.

What else is there to be outraged about? What else have they done in the last 24 hours. I'm sooooooo glad dignity and honor have been restored to the White House. I'm so glad the adults have been in charge for the last seven years. You know, this country has been so very well taken care of by having two former oil men in charge and by having such professional corporate types running things.

Yeah, it's hard to find the appropriate level of outrage. I'm just being half-heartedly sarcastic because I just can't believe it...I can't.

Wow.

It isn't the sex, or even the corruption - it's the hypocrisy

"This was a very serious sin in my past for which I am, of course, completely responsible," Vitter said in the statement. "Several years ago, I asked for and received forgiveness from God and my wife in confession and marriage counseling. Out of respect for my family, I will keep my discussion of the matter there -- with God and them. But I certainly offer my deep and sincere apologies to all I have disappointed and let down in any way."

Whatever, Senator. However you want to try to spin it, it boils down to this:

Yet another powerful, influential man who sits on a committee that deals with issues arising from sex trafficking – has been caught consorting with hookers.

Add this unseemly business to the cloud of suspicion that was already hanging over his head after his less-than-kosher associations with the disgraced lobbyist and convict Jack Abramoff.

In 2003, Vitter attended a fundraiser hosted by Abramoff. Two months after the event, Vitter inserted a provision into an Interior Department funding bill that was favorable to one of Abramoff’s clients, the Coushatta tribe of Louisiana, at the expense of the Jena Choctaw tribe – also his constituents. The provision that Vitter slipped in barred the Jena Choctaw from opening a casino that would have competed with the casino owned and operated by Abramoff’s clients, the Coushatta. Vitter has previously confessed to working with lawyers from Abramoffs firm, Greenberg Traurig, in drafting the legislative language for the provision.

This man has proven himself not fit to serve in the position he holds. He should, for the sake of the institution, resign immediately.

I have said from the very beginning that this is not about sex. It is much deeper than that. The sex is just the part that gets the American public in a tizzy. So bless their little hearts. If it takes tits and titillation to get the American people to pay attention to something, well, so be it. I would be tickled pink if people got as excited about bad policy and bad politics as they do bad behavior, but unfortunately, they don’t. So what the hell? We’ll take what we can get so long as light keeps shining in dark corners.

One last thing - if Brian Ross of ABC News knew that a sitting senator was on that list, and he backed off on the story...He should resign in disgrace, too.

UPDATE: About that resignation I think he ought to have the courage to submit...In 1998, he agreed. Think Progress has dug up this quote from the Clinton impeachment era: “I think Livingston’s stepping down makes a very powerful argument that Clinton should resign as well and move beyond this mess,” he said. [Atlanta Journal and Constitution, 12/20/98]