With Friends Like These..(bagman Jack Abramoff says Delay lies - knew all)

[papau]

I love how Republican "loyalty," is so akin to Bush/GOP "compassionate conservatism"

And According to Josh Marshall... " Shays (R-Conn.) says DeLay's a handful, calls the Majority Leader an "embarrassment" who won't survive through this term as head of the caucus. "He is an absolute embarrassment to me and to the Republican Party," Rep. Christopher Shays (R) of Connecticut told a constituents at a townhall meeting in Greenwich on Saturday. "Do I think Tom DeLay will be the majority leader by the end of this term? No," Shays went on to say. "I don't think Tom DeLay is going to survive." ......"Meanwhile, arch-bag-man Jack Abramoff, is telling friends, "Everybody is lying," according to a new piece out from Newsweek's Isikoff. "Those S.O.B.s. DeLay knew everything. He knew all the details." http://www.talkingpointsmemo.com/archives/005391.php


With Friends Like These...
A lunchtime chat with a lobbyist close to Tom DeLay suggests he may be headed for hotter water.

by Michael Isikoff
Newsweek
April 18 issue

Jack Abramoff was somber, bitter and feeling betrayed. Once a Washington superlobbyist, Abramoff is now the target of a Justice Department criminal probe of allegations that he defrauded American Indian tribes of tens of millions of dollars in fees. As stories of his alleged excess dribble out -- including the emergence of e-mails showing he derisively referred to his Native American clients as "monkeys" and "idiots" -- some of Abramoff's old friends have abandoned him and treated him like a pariah.

They claim they knew nothing of his questionable lobbying tactics.

So last week, glumly sitting at his corner table at Signatures, the tony downtown restaurant he owns that remains his last redoubt, Abramoff lashed out in frustration.

"Everybody is lying," Abramoff told a former colleague.

There are e-mails and records that will implicate others, he said.

He was noticeably caustic about House Majority Leader Tom DeLay. For years, nobody on Washington's K Street corridor was closer to DeLay than Abramoff. They were an unlikely duo. DeLay, a conservative Christian, and Abramoff, an Orthodox Jew, traveled the world together and golfed the finest courses. Abramoff raised hundreds of thousands for DeLay's political causes and hired DeLay's aides, or kicked them business, when they left his employ. But now DeLay, too, has problems -- in part because of overseas trips allegedly paid for by Abramoff's clients. In response, DeLay and his aides have said repeatedly they were unaware of Abramoff's behind-the-scenes financing role. "Those S.O.B.s," Abramoff said last week about DeLay and his staffers, according to his luncheon companion. "DeLay knew everything. He knew all the details."
<snip>

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/7446492/site/newsweek/

[Nothing Without Hope]

1. Very similar to another thread

here in LBN, currently on the Greatest Page with 12 votes:
http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=102x1383901
Title: "Delay Knew Everything. He Knew All the Details."

[papau]

2. Thanks for the heads up - I'll repost there

:-)