Abramoff wasn't just some guy in the room photo'd w/Bush: Rove knows him

[ProSense]

Abramoff Said to Claim Close Ties to Rove

By JOHN SOLOMON and PETE YOST, Associated Press Writers
12 minutes ago

WASHINGTON - Three former associates of Jack Abramoff said Monday that the now-disgraced lobbyist frequently told them during his lobbying work he had strong ties to the White House through presidential confidant Karl Rove.

The White House said Monday that Rove remembers meeting Abramoff at a 1990s political meeting and considered the lobbyist a "casual acquaintance" since President Bush took office in 2001.

New questions have arisen about Abramoff's ties to the White House since a photo emerged over the weekend showing Abramoff with Bush. Also surfacing were the contents of an e-mail from Abramoff to Washingtonian magazine claiming he had met briefly with the president nearly a dozen times.

snip...

One said he was present when Abramoff took a call from Rove's office to confirm a White House meeting had been approved between Malaysia's prime minister and Bush in May 2002. Abramoff was being paid by Malaysia for helping it in Washington, according to evidence the Senate has made public.


more...

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20060214/ap_on_go_pr_wh/rove_abramoff_1

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_mesg&forum=132&topic_id=2455208&mesg_id=2455208

[Ecumenist]

1. Like that's a shock

:eyes: Rove and the entire bunch of them are such bad liars. At least, make it plausible, for crying out loud. As if those photos weren't going to show up... Anyone, who at this point still believes anything this group says is either "emotionally and mentally fragile< east coast, Bellevue, west coast, Atascasdero), or working at being stupid.

[ProSense]

2. Bush doesn't remember meeting a friend of Rove's at least a dozen times.

Make the leap MSM.

[ProSense]

3. Jack Who?

Jack Who?

Wednesday, February 15, 2006; Page A20

IT'S NOT, as photos for a superlobbyist's power wall go, a terribly impressive shot: President Bush, his back to the camera, shaking the hand of Raul Garza, chief of the Kickapoo tribe of Texas. In the foreground, Karl Rove, smiling at a 2001 White House meeting to promote the president's tax cuts. And there at the back of the room, only his slightly blurry head visible, the chief's lobbyist: Jack Abramoff. Which, of course -- along with the refusal of the Bush administration to release information about what Mr. Abramoff was doing at the White House, how often he was there and with whom -- is what makes the picture a big deal.

Kim Eisler of Washingtonian magazine has reported that the disgraced lobbyist met with Mr. Bush almost a dozen times over the past five years and was invited to the president's ranch in Crawford, Tex., in 2003. According to Mr. Abramoff, who raised at least $100,000 for Mr. Bush's reelection, the president was once well acquainted enough with the lobbyist (or at least well briefed enough) to inquire about his twins. But now, as in the photo, Mr. Abramoff somehow has gone blurry in Mr. Bush's memory. The president doesn't recall meeting or posing for pictures with him.

Mr. Rove's memory is fuzzy, too, as luck would have it. His name, according to the Associated Press, was rather routinely dropped by Mr. Abramoff as his big White House contact. Mr. Abramoff's former assistant, Susan Ralston, went to the White House to work for Mr. Rove, and, the Associated Press reported yesterday, Mr. Rove's office helped set up a 2002 meeting between Mr. Bush and the prime minister of Malaysia, another Abramoff client. One Abramoff business associate reported being in the lobbyist's office when Mr. Rove's office called to confirm the meeting.

more...

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/02/14/AR2006021401899.html