Source tells TPMmuckraker.com Katherine Harris may be pulling out of the race. Campaign denies.
Who you gonna believe? Me or your lyin’ Abramoff?
Ahhh, wingnut grudge match. Sen. Burns has just responded to the new Abramoff interview in Vanity Fair, in which Abramoff says his staff was âas close as they could be,” with Burns’ office. Spokesman calls Abramoff “a pathological liar who has no credibility and belongs in jail.”
CQ ain’t convinced.
Congressional Quarterly, the respected DC news and information service, moves Tom DeLay’s 22nd district from “Leans Republican” to “No Clear Favorite.”
More juicy details from the Vanity Fair Abramoff tell-all piece.
Advance Morsel: Monty Warner, a Republican media strategist: “I can remember Ney coming up and groveling [at Abramoff’s table at Signatures], saying how much he enjoyed a golf outing or skybox or ball game, and really appreciated Jack’s support.”
“The Vietnam War experience canât tell us anything about the war in Iraq â or so it is said. If you believe that, trying looking through this lens, and you may change your mind.”
Those are the first two sentences of former NSA chief and Lt. Gen. William Odom’s new article Iraq through the prism of Vietnam.
Gotta love it.
WaPo: “After saying in January that he would end his regular meetings with lobbyists, Sen. Rick Santorum (Pa.), the third-ranking GOP leader in the Senate, has continued to meet with many of the same lobbyists at the same time and on the same day of the week.”
Sen. Santorum says his charity isn’t his charity. That and other news of the day in today’s Daily Muck.
Does this count as a crackdown on 
lobbying?
Last week we brought you word of Brian Bilbray, former congressman-turned-lobbyist trying to turn back into a congressman.
He’s running for the seat vacated by the resignation of the Duke Cunningham, California’s 50th district. And he’s run into a bit of turbulence over the fact that he was tight with Jack Abramoff, became a lobbyist himself and generally is a poster-boy for much of what reformers this year are trying to root out in Washington.
He’s big battle so far this year has been to present to prevent the state of California from identifying his occupation as “lobbyist” on election materials. Most of his work has been on behalf of an anti-immigration group and an Indian tribe with a casino.
Today the San Diego Union-Tribune reports that Bilbray has won his battle.
On the special election ballot, Bilbray will appear as “immigration reform consultant.”
Key GOP money operative decides to spend more time with the family.