Courtesy of Marshall Wittman, a choice paragraph from the Post’s latest article on Jack Abramoff’s cash-n-carry graft perpetual motion machine …
For most politicians, fundraising is a dreaded chore. But until recently, Rep. John T. Doolittle of California and other members of the House Republican leadership had adopted a painless solution: fundraising events in luxury sports boxes leased largely with the money of Indian gaming tribes, where supporters snacked on catered fare in plush surroundings as they watched the Wizards, Caps, Redskins or Orioles.
Doolittle, a Mormon, is an ardent opponent of casino gambling, so it is somewhat ironic that he would invite supporters to watch the Wizards play the Sacramento Kings from an MCI Center suite paid for by casino-rich Indian tribes. But the plaque at the door to Suite 204 did not say Chitimacha or Choctaw. It said “Jack Abramoff,” a name synonymous with largesse and influence in the GOP-controlled Congress.
With Abramoff, we now need a term for the moral inverse of ‘honest graft’, organized corruption, with no redeeming features, which is yet thoroughly lawyered and irreproachable before the law <$NoAd$>. And of course Abramoff is no more than one of the more noteworthy butlers in the House that DeLay built.
