Here's a tidbit from Time I missed the other day:
Lawmakers and their staffs took golfing trips that Abramoff arranged--and sometimes paid for--to Scotland and the Northern Mariana Islands. Abramoff's now defunct restaurant Signatures was host to more than 60 fund raisers for members of Congress and often neglected to send a bill. At the lobbyist's delicatessen Stacks, Abramoff even named a sandwich after Congressman Eric Cantor at a $500-a-plate fund raiser in January 2003. (Cantor later asked the deli to switch his namesake sandwich from tuna to roast beef on challah, "a deli special that exudes Jewish power," wrote the Jewish newspaper the Forward.)
Can you get any closer to Abramoff? I'd love someone to get us a copy of that menu!
What a bunch of greasy, money grubbing hacks.
Jack Abramoff, a former top Republican lobbyist and fundraiser who is now under federal investigation for dubious dealings with his Native American clients, hosted fundraisers with two Republican congressmen during the same period the legislators pushed for action benefiting Abramoff's client, RAW STORY has learned.Then-Rep. David Vitter (R-LA) attended a $1,000-a-plate dinner hosted by Abramoff for the Republican Congressional Campaign Committee while he was meeting with Abramoff's attorneys in an eleventh hour maneuver to insert a provision worth tens of millions of dollars to Abramoff's Native American client.
Attending the same Sept. 9, 2003 function at Abramoff's restaurant, Signatures, was Deputy Majority Whip Eric Cantor (R-VA), the highest ranking appointed congressman in the House. Three months earlier, Cantor signed a letter along with House Majority Leader Tom DeLay (R- TX) urging the Department of the Interior to back a move favoring Abramoff's client, the Louisiana Coushatta tribe.
The dinner was the only Republican Congressional Campaign Committee fundraiser Abramoff hosted that year. According to the Washington Post, Abramoff regularly entertained politicians at his pricey Pennsylvania Avenue restaurant Signatures, and billed his tribal clients for hundreds of thousands of dollars in meals.
I'm no Tweety fan, but I loved how Matthews was laughing at him.
It's a kosher sandwich, but -- you're entitled to pork if you pay extra!