Abramoff says Bush is lying.

February 10, 2006 2:51 AM

Abramoff says Bush is lying."Having my picture taken with someone doesn't mean that I'm a friend with them or know them very well." - George W. Bush, Jan. 26, 2006.

"The guy saw me 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." - Jack Abramoff

Mr. Abramoff, who raised over $100,000 for the Bush campaign, also indicated that he was sent a personal invitation to stay at the President's Texas ranch.
posted by insomnia_lj (37 comments total)

File this one under, no shit!
posted by Mijo Bijo at 2:55 AM on February 10, 2006

The emailed statements by Abramoff were released by americanprogressaction.org.

According to their website, Jack Abramoff also has several photos with President Bush and First Lady Laura Bush in his house, "just sitting in his office."

White House Press Secretary McClellan has previously said if photos of Bush with Abramoff exist, they were shots taken at "widely attended" Hanukkah receptions in 2001 and 2002.

That's not what a reporter saw in Abramoff's home office. He reports that none of the photos at Abramoff's house were from holiday parties. One photo at Abramoff's home depicts Bush shaking hands with Abramoff inside the Old Executive Office Building. Another shows Bush with Abramoff at what appears to be the Corcoran Gallery of Art. A third photo, which has not previously been disclosed, is of Abramoff's wife with Laura Bush.
posted by insomnia_lj at 3:02 AM on February 10, 2006

Bad post, good news.
posted by stavrosthewonderchicken at 3:06 AM on February 10, 2006

Little known fact: one of Bush's closest advisors is Shaggy.
posted by beerbajay at 3:06 AM on February 10, 2006

File this under a Billy Martinism: One's a liar, the other's convicted.

If unlawful wiretapping, starting a WAR on false pretenses (several of them), mismanaging the federal budget and dismantling FEMA to the point of utter haplessness isn't going to bring him down, this won't even make a dent.

No offense i_lj (I normally enjoy your posts), but seriously, what's the point here? Bush is a liar?
posted by psmealey at 3:13 AM on February 10, 2006

If unlawful wiretapping, starting a WAR on false pretenses (several of them), mismanaging the federal budget and dismantling FEMA to the point of utter haplessness isn't going to bring him down, this won't even make a dent.

Despite murders, organized crime, kidnapping, and illegal bootlegging, Al Capone was brought down on tax-evasion, psmealey. The law works in strange and mysterious ways.
posted by three blind mice at 3:26 AM on February 10, 2006

I hope you're right, 3BM... but this just seems like another sideshow (e.g.: Bush's drunken driving arrest, gaps in his National Guard service, his Harken Energy insider trading windfall, etc.) for all of us to get distracted by when the much more egregious offenses of the administration barely get more than lip service anymore.
posted by psmealey at 3:37 AM on February 10, 2006

My point is that Abramoff's ties to the White House and to Bush himself appear to be a lot closer than previously disclosed, and that it is likely to lead to additional very uncomfortable disclosures that will hurt the Bush administration directly, once things start playing out.
posted by insomnia_lj at 3:45 AM on February 10, 2006

But Bush probably can't remember. It takes brains to remember stuff. Besides, Bush doesn't use real names, he uses nicknames. Find out Abramoff's nick name, you find the memory.
posted by Goofyy at 3:49 AM on February 10, 2006

As poor orthodox jews fleeing persecution and the Gulag, there was nothing this family wanted more than acceptance by the host country.

In an attempt to fit in and gain acceptance, they changed the family name which subsequent generations had born proudly as a mark of the peasant's desire to serve his aristocratic master.

As a consequence, Jack abandoned his original name of Ivan Tojac Georgbuchov.
posted by PeterMcDermott at 3:59 AM on February 10, 2006

I'm SHOCKED! SHOCKED, I tell you! George W. Bush? LYING? Simply S-H-O-C-K-I-N-G!!
posted by crunchland at 4:14 AM on February 10, 2006

it seems all the bush apologists are shunning this site lately, I kinda miss the "you liberal pussies!!11+"-style comments we got from them... </nostalgia>
posted by slater at 4:18 AM on February 10, 2006

You liberal pussies!!11 Why do you hate America?

Better?

Oh God, now I feel ... why, I feel like I want to go subvery democracy with my business ideals and evangelical Christianity! Who should I lobby first?
posted by bwerdmuller at 4:23 AM on February 10, 2006

bwerdmuller: There's this guy called Abra... no wait. Umm... sorry, dunno.
posted by slater at 4:24 AM on February 10, 2006

It all depends upon what the meaning of the word "know" is.
posted by caddis at 4:30 AM on February 10, 2006

I think you should've put the real, uncensored remark.

HE HAS ONE OF THE BEST MEMORIES OF ANY
POLITICIAN I HAVE EVER MET. IT WAS ONE IF [sic] HIS
TRADEMARKS, THOUGH OF COURSE HE CAN’T RECALL THAT HE
HAS A GREAT MEMORY! THE GUY SAW ME 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.
posted by rxrfrx at 4:35 AM on February 10, 2006

All I can say is with the new internet monitoring going on, the bad people should be punished in the worst possible way so the good people can go about their business and live their lives free from the influence of the obvious to the ass end of a dead horse bad, bad people. I can't understand why the good people such as law enforcement in any capacity cannot swoop down on the bad people and collect them up and put them away in a very dark and lonely place for a very, very long time. Because they are so obviously bad, bad people. Bad.
posted by mk1gti at 4:48 AM on February 10, 2006

but this just seems like another sideshow (e.g.: Bush's drunken driving arrest, gaps in his National Guard service, his Harken Energy insider trading windfall, etc.) for all of us to get distracted by when the much more egregious offenses of the administration barely get more than lip service anymore.

I know what you mean psmealy, but so far none of Bush's "more egregious" crimes has gained any purchase with the public. When you're dealing with an American public whose interest is piqued by American Idol, it seems more likely that some simple, stupid, easily understandable issue - like this one - might provide some traction for the wheels of justice. The big lies don't matter, but it would be none the less sweet to see him tripped up on a small one.

Bush's memory is just fine - when he talks about things he actually knows. Nearly all of his public gaffes come from talking about things he knows nothing about - which is pretty much everything connected to his present occupation.
posted by three blind mice at 4:55 AM on February 10, 2006

> it seems all the bush apologists are shunning this site lately, I kinda miss the
> "you liberal pussies!!11+"-style comments we got from them...

slater, it's because you make us feel so welcome. That takes all the aggro out of the mefi experience and pretty much defeats the purpose of coming here. If only you boys could learn to be less tenderly careful of the feelings of the Other. Work on that, OK?


> All I can say is with the new internet monitoring going on,

Chilling effect? What chilling effect? I don't notice any chilling effect. Everyone to the left of Alan Greenspan should be rounded up and shipped off to Gitmo. See? Just post from the heart and whoever's listening be damned.
posted by jfuller at 5:05 AM on February 10, 2006

I remember a time when a simple, obvious, provable lie to the press corpse* would send them into full-on scandal mode.

Talking heads outside the White House, flashy graphics, creative naming ("Day 10 of LiarLiarPantsOnFireGate..."), several articles a day (some days dozens), constant recaps on cable news, the lead of to each evening news broadcast being on the latest "breaking developments" in the lie, kvetching over how this really doesn't play well with the heartland...

Ah, 1998-1999. My how times have changed. That liberal media sure is tricky.

* Not a typo.
posted by teece at 5:40 AM on February 10, 2006

"I remember a time when a simple, obvious, provable lie to the press corpse* would send them into full-on scandal mode."

Sadly true.

Sure, Abramoff was criminally corrupt, had lots of Republican politicians as his willing partners, was doing his best to create a permanent system of political corruption in this country, and was quite possibly involved in a murder, but perhaps that truth is too complex for the media to express in 30 second soundbites.

There's one thing that this scandal is missing that would help reporters make things clearer to the public. The press needs a blue dress.
posted by insomnia_lj at 6:20 AM on February 10, 2006

Chilling effect? What chilling effect? I don't notice any chilling effect. Everyone to the left of Alan Greenspan should be rounded up and shipped off to Gitmo. See? Just post from the heart and whoever's listening be damned.
jfuller
---------------------------
The problem with this statement is that you and those you support actually belong there. You are not representative of the United States or the best interests of the U.S. or it's citizens as a whole. You only represent the worst and most corrupt and deluded of any nepotistic, corrupt and amoral institution and it's blind-faith, naive, ignorant and stupid followers.

As far as being polite when you are suggesting internment for your fellow countrymen because they 'see the light'?
Hanging is too good for traitors such as yourself. Here's hoping to see you and your kind shipped off to an Egyptian interrogation facility.
posted by mk1gti at 6:22 AM on February 10, 2006

Personally, I believe that the lack of credible reporting is the fault of "news as entertainment for the masses", rather than some sort of inherent shortcoming in the modern American citizen.
posted by I Love Tacos at 6:35 AM on February 10, 2006

Hey, remember when Bush witnessed the swearing-in of his White House staff...and said he expected them to avoid even the appearance of impropriety and to conduct themselves with humility and civility at all times?

I guess they fell a little short of that goal. Just a little, though.
posted by you just lost the game at 6:39 AM on February 10, 2006

More trouble for the administration: Michael Brown is going to testify before congress about his communications with the president before/during Hurricane Katrina and Scooter Libby has testified that Dick Cheney and other white house superiors authorized him to disclose classified information in order to stir up support for the war. I think the second could cause big problems for them, because even neocons would be outraged about that. Maybe Cheney will be impeached before Bush? Of course, then Bush would get to nominate a new VP, which isn't exactly comforting considering his previous nominations.
posted by leapingsheep at 6:44 AM on February 10, 2006

teece writes "I remember a time when a simple, obvious, provable lie to the press corpse* would send them into full-on scandal mode."

It must be outrage fatigue.
posted by clevershark at 6:51 AM on February 10, 2006

The press needs a blue dress.

no, the American public does. cocksucking is easy to understand, political corruption and, Allah forbid, foreign affairs, makes one's head hurt.
my contempt for the "liberal" US media notwithstanding, the American public has a big responsibility -- they want easy-to-digest crap, they just find a corporate-owned media that's only happy to oblige them.
posted by matteo at 7:05 AM on February 10, 2006

matteo, if the media wanted to, they could distill any of these scandals down into something memorable.
posted by wakko at 7:36 AM on February 10, 2006

perhaps that truth is too complex for the media to express in 30 second soundbites.

Good point.
posted by caddis at 7:50 AM on February 10, 2006

Bush has Jewish friends?

More seriously, this is yet another case where just coming clean e.g., "I knew the guy, didn't know he was a crook, now I do" would have quashed this. Clinton did this all the time too--allowed the media to make mountains out of his molehills. It's a bit different with Bush II though--I mean, he got away with murder regarding Iraq and WMD, and now, hell, you can't blame him for just thumbing his nose at the world. The American press should be ashamed, the American people moreso.
posted by bardic at 9:08 AM on February 10, 2006

you know when you go to a comedy club and one of the acts is just terrible right from the get-go? like right off the bat they start bombing and they never really recover. a handful of folks (probably the comedian's friends and family anyhow) give a few courtesy laughs but for the most part you just feel embarassed for the guy on stage and for yourself a little bit and plus you've already paid to get in and for drinks and you're not getting a dime of that money back.

anyways, that's what it's like to live in america.
posted by mcsweetie at 9:21 AM on February 10, 2006

It's all Clinton's fault!

matteo, if the media wanted to, they could distill any of these scandals down into something memorable.
posted by wakko


perhaps that truth is too complex for the media to express in 30 second soundbites.

Good point.
posted by caddis

I'm going with wakko on this one.
posted by nofundy at 10:27 AM on February 10, 2006

Apparently the Bushes can have faulty memories when it comes to remembering who their friends are.
posted by orange swan at 10:35 AM on February 10, 2006

Funny.
What’s to be gained by Abramoff saying that tho? I know he didn’t (write) it publicly. But why bring it up at all? Bitter maybe?
posted by Smedleyman at 11:17 AM on February 10, 2006

Abramoff said he did not make the trip because as an Orthodox Jew he cannot travel on Saturdays.

What is this day of rest shit? It don't matter to the Jesus!
posted by sour cream at 12:38 PM on February 10, 2006

Poor Jack. Even his closest personal friends (10th paragraph from the bottom) can't seem to remember him now.
posted by forrest at 1:45 PM on February 10, 2006

mcsweetie, that was brilliant.
posted by beth at 2:41 PM on February 10, 2006