Admittedly, it’s Saturday night. But this is a great question for collaborative research. And I suspect some of you are ready to dig in even now.
This passage comes, unrebutted, in today’s Washington Post …
DeLay’s association with Abramoff clearly has become a concern for those in the majority leader’s camp. In recent months, DeLay has been distancing himself from Abramoff. Earlier this year, DeLay told a group of conservative supporters at a private meeting that sometime shortly after SunCruz Casinos founder Konstantinos “Gus” Boulis was gunned down in Fort Lauderdale, Fla., on Feb. 6, 2001, he confronted Abramoff over his SunCruz involvement, according to people in attendance.
“Immediately, he had Abramoff called in and told him, ‘I want no more dealings with you,’ ” said conservative activist Paul M. Weyrich, a longtime DeLay friend, recounting a speech DeLay gave to a conservative group earlier this year. “I think he felt blindsided by Abramoff” over the SunCruz affair, Weyrich said.
So DeLay has staked his game on February 6th, 2001, four and a half years ago.
There’s a lot of information <$NoAd$> publicly available online. Political contributions, newspaper articles, party websites, etc. I suspect there’s a lot out there about DeLay’s post February 2001 chumminess with Abramoff. If you find examples, let us know.
