The most sought-after pictures in Washington

January 9, 2006

Last week, several members of the White House press corps followed up on the Jack Abramoff plea deal by asking some fairly pertinent questions: has Bush met Abramoff, the lobbyist who raised at least $100,000 for the president’s 2004 campaign? How often has Abramoff been to the White House? Any pictures of the two together? McClellan hedged and emphasized that the president does not know Abramoff and has no recollection of meeting him. McClellan acknowledged, however, that Abramoff attended three Hanukkah receptions at the White House.

And with that, the race was on.

[W]ith the possibility that DeLay could be indicted in the Abramoff case, the Administration fears that the scandal could tarnish all Republicans and even hand the House to the Democrats. “They’re worried about the Congress,” an adviser said after talking to White House aides, “and they’re worried about themselves.” Although DeLay’s forfeiture of his leadership post makes things easier for the White House, the Abramoff saga will continue to be a problem.

Bracing for the worst, Administration officials obtained from the Secret Service a list of all the times Abramoff entered the White House complex, and they scrambled to determine the reason for each visit. Bush aides are also trying to identify all the photos that may exist of the two men together.

Like Jason Zengerle, I find it hard to believe that Abramoff would go to the White House, three times, and not take full advantage of the opportunity. The man is many things, but wallflower isn’t a word anyone would use to describe Abramoff’s personality. “After all, that’s the number one reason a lobbyist goes to those White House holiday parties: to stand in line and wait to get his picture taken with the president, so he can then hang that picture on the power wall at his office and impress his clients.”

And if, by chance, any of you have genuine Bush-Abramoff pics and want to share them with your friendly neighborhood Carpetbagger, my inbox is always open.

On a more realistic note, what do you suppose the White House will do when it’s done pulling this information together? Abramoff is already closely connected with the administration, even without embarrassing pictures, but the Secret Service list and any existing photos would make a bad p.r. situation worse. I wonder how fast Karl Rove can shred a FOIA request?

I’ve said it before, I’ll say it again, Bush is going to suspend the FOIA at some point. It’s been the source of too much humiliating truth.

  • CHEESE!!! I wonder what reason he will give when he does suspends the FOIA? Most likely the terrorist will be using it for some reason or another, and people in their trailer parks will roll over for him, and go out and buy bigger posters of him in flight suits.

  • jeremy

    yep. i think he’ll say, “the liberal media is endangering america by twisting statutes to give the enemies secret information, so we have to shut down this pipeline of treason at the source.” this from an administration who marks everything secret (50-75% of their secret documents don’t need to be).

  • If no pictures of Bush and Abramoff surface, can we at least find shots of Jack with Cheney, Rummy, Rice, Rove, or Bill O’Reilly?

  • What if we get pictures of Jack and Saddam, that would be fun. how embarassing would that be er…Rumsfeld…

  • Which of those patriotic men and women in the Secret Service might be moved to leak that list and those photos in order to uphold their oath to preserve, protect and defend the Constitution of the United States?

    Just asking.

  • Within the last couple of days I read Abramoff was tapped as a member for Bush’s transition team by Bush as an advisor to the administration on policy hiring @ the Interior Department which sees to Native American affairs.

    Abramoff’s former top aide, Susan Ralston, currently serves as top aide to Rove…

    In addition to the aforementioned Abramoff raised money ($100,000) for Bush’s re-election which means Abramoff was a Pioneer making it all the more difficult to spin.

    If they use the “Bush does not know Abramoff” strategy, it will make it worse because it will come back to haunt them.

    Why can’t they ever just tell the truth right off the bat and get it out of the way; instead they try to cover things up and then when they get caught it — they always do — they have to spend more time and energy in damage control. They make their lives so much more complicated than it needs to be.

    Oh what a tangled web we weave when we first begin to deceive!

  • They won’t have to suspend FOIA, just keep things on the same pace they are now. Apparently this administration has slowed the process for responding to FOIA requests to sometime out in the 2010’s.By the time they cough anything up, Georgie will be on permanent vacation in Prince Bandar’s back pocket.

    I can recall Republicans saying that Secret Service agents ought to give up Bill Clinton if “a crime” had been committed. Their definition of crime at the time was lying under oath. I wonder what they’d argue now.

  • All meetings between lobbyists and executive officials are part of the deliberative process by which prewritten legislation is delivered to the whitehouse before subsequent delivery to friendly members of congress. As such, the timing of such discussions and any pictures taken during such events are clearly covered by executive privledge. Release of these lists and photos might possibly taint the raw and biased purity of legislative proposals that shameless lobbyists provide the whitehouse with prior to their being delivered to members of congress.

    The same goes for trips that major lobbyists and cash donors take on nuclear submarines or F-14’s.

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