Interesting.

After reading my earlier posts on the AP article on Jack Abramoff and Harry Reid, longtime TPM Reader DY wrote in and said, “After I read your post, I was wondering something. Did AP call Ron Platt? I mean, he clearly was willing to talk, and he clearly would have added to the story. Or actually, made a third of the story false, but be that as it may…”

(Platt, of course, is the former Greenberg-Traurig lobbyist who the AP article alleges was Abramoff’s point of contact in trying to persuade Reid to support the position of the Marianas Island sweatshop owners. For the details on this and why talking to Platt might have been relevant, see this earlier post from this afternoon.)

Anyway, that sounded like a good question.

So I got hold of Platt and asked him. He told me he hadn’t spoken to them for the piece and they’d made no attempt to get hold of him.

“So AP not only did not speak to you for this article, but made no attempt to speak to you?,” I asked in a follow-up earlier this evening. “Exactly. No Voicemail[.] no record of any incoming,” came his reply.

White House said it didn’t know about key levee break in New Orleans when Katrina hit; records now show they did. Michael Brown, former FEMA Director, personally notified the White House of the news that night. See the details in this piece in tomorrow’s Times.

“There is no question in my mind, that at the highest levels of the White House they understood how grave the situation was,” Brown tells the Times.

Brown testifies before the Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee tomorrow morning.

Could be interesting.

Alaska Rep. Don Young (R-AK) says he’s “never had any personal or professional relationship with [Jack] Abramoff.” But that’s a claim that gets harder to maintain by the day. Particularly today.

In February 1999, Rep. Young led a congressional delegation to the Republic of the Marshall Islands.

The trip was organized by Jack Abramoff.

Until now, Abramoff’s representation of The Republic of the Marshall Islands (RMI) has gone almost completely unreported. On January 4th, 1999, the RMI hired Abramoff with a $50,000 retainer. Young led the trip the following month. The group arrived February 21st and left on the 22nd.

The trip was a so-called “CODEL”, or Congressional Delegation, meaning that it was an official trip by Members of Congress to a foreign country. But, according to a former Marshall Islands government official familiar with the trip and court documents filed in 2001, the trip was organized and arranged by Jack Abramoff.

Fred Wertheimer, President of government watchdog group Democracy 21, called Abramoff’s managing of the trip “very unusual.” In fact, he couldn’t think of another example of it. “CODELS are government trips paid for by the government,” said Wertheimer. “And it would seem to me to be highly inappropriate for a Washington lobbyist to arrange and schedule a government trip.”

The former Marshall Islands government official, who spoke on condition of anonymity, told TPMmuckraker.com that after Abramoff was hired, he told RMI officials: “You need Congress to come out to the Marshall Islands. Let me see what I can do about that.”

And Abramoff delivered. At least three Members of Congress and three non-voting delegates accompanied Young on the February 1999 trip.

According to Congressional travel records filed by the House Committee on Resources, these included John Doolittle (R-CA) and Ken Calvert (R-CA), as well as Eni Faleomavaega (D-American Samoa), Bob Underwood (D-Guam), and Donna Christenson (D-Virgin Islands). Eight congressional staffers came along too. (The records do not show the cost of the taxpayer-funded trip.) Though not mentioned in congressional travel records, Rep. Dana Rohrabacher (R-CA) was also part of the delegation, according to the former RMI official. (Rohrabacher’s attendence was later confirmed by his spokesperson Rebecca Rudman.)

While over in the beautiful islands, Young’s delegation visited the Kwajalein Atoll missile test site and attended a meeting of the parliament, during which a resolution was introduced to rename the test site after Ronald Reagan. According to the former RMI official, Young addressed the assembly in Bermuda shorts.

Abramoff spokesman Andrew Blum declined to comment. When contacted on Tuesday, the Marshall Islands’ Ambassador to the U.S. Banny de Brum declined to answer any questions about Abramoff. Rep. Young’s office failed to return a call requesting comment.

At the time of the trip, Rep. Young was Chairman of the House Resources Committee, which handles issues pertaining to U.S. territories and freely-associated states like the RMI. The revelation of the trip, however, comes at a difficult time for Young.

Roll Call recently reported that he wrote letters to the General Services Administration, allegedly on behalf of Abramoff’s tribal clients. That, together with the fact that a former aide of his went to work for Abramoff, and that he’s been on the side of a number of Abramoff’s clients, has kept the heat on. On Tuesday, in a guest editorial for The Anchorage Daily News, he insisted: “I have never had any personal or professional relationship with Abramoff.”

As for others on the trip, Doolittle has frequently been in the news for his ties to Abramoff, and Rohrabacher and Abramoff are old friends.

The RMI retained Abramoff while he was at Preston Gates, from January of 1999 through February 2000. A dispute over the final fee of roughly $500,000 eventually led Preston Gates to file a law suit against the RMI in September 2001.

In the suit, Preston Gates detailed their extensive services for the Republic of the RMI, and the firm’s role in organizing the trip. Among them (emphasis added):

“Organizing a visit by a congressional delegation led by Representative Don Young (R-AK) to the RMI. This included drafting all RMI statements and press releases, organizing the delegation’s schedule, drafting all of the RMI’s official speeches, and coordinating the delegation’s activities with the RMI military.”

Elizabeth Fleming, the attorney who filed the suit for Preston Gates, confirmed that Jack Abramoff was the Preston Gates lobbyist who worked on the account.

The suit for $433,369.19, the outstanding balance on the RMI’s account, was ultimately settled out of court.

According to the Agreement that Preston Gates and the Marshalls signed, Abramoff was hired, among other reasons, to lobby the Congress and Administration on the islands’ upcoming negotiations on the Compact of Free Association. The compact from 1986 – a massive financial settlement between the U.S. and the islands involving use of the missile site, grants, and a trust fund – was set to expire in 2001. After four years of negotiations, the two sides finally agreed on a settlement in 2003. The grants and trust fund in the new agreement add up to more than $800 million.

Coming Soon: What other services Jack Abramoff provided for the Republic of the Marshall Islands.

If you aren’t watching the Michael Brown senate hearings, you just missed a real treat. Sen. Norm Coleman (R), doofus senator from Minnesota, just managed to get his butt kicked by disgraced former FEMA Director Michael Brown.

That’s a singular accomplishment.

Coleman tried the standard hearings grandstanding against a disgraced or weakened witness — a tactic pretty much written into the DNA of every senator and rep. But Brown managed to get in Coleman’s face and turn the tables on him.

At the end, Coleman actually used the fact that he had run out of time to run away from the encounter with Brown. I’m not sure I’ve ever seen that happen before.

Four Republican congressmen go to an island in the Pacific. That and other news of the day in today’s Daily Muck.

A senior Democratic hill staffer chimes in the AP Reid/Abramoff piece and our response …

Longtime reader, first time writer. In rebuttal to the hit piece on Reid you’re falling into the trap being set by the Republicans. People, and the media in particular, are getting way too caught up on “who lobbied who, and for what reason” and anyone who was lobbied, is a lobbyist, worked with a lobbyist, or received a donation from someone represented by a lobbyist has the stench of corruption. That’s unfair and misses the crux of this particular scandal, and how GOP pay to play government works.

Its not illegal to be lobbied, and hell, we couldn’t do our jobs if we didn’t interact with them. Legislation/regulation/oversight can’t be done solely by Google research. What is illegal is to go out of your way, and use your position, as quid pro quo for gifts, jobs, and campaign contributions. The vast majority of Democratic staffers work on the Hill, despite the miserable pay and long hours, to try to achieve some measure of good. Many, many Republican staffers- convinced that government is an evil- work here in order to make money off that necessary evil. That breeds corruption. When you have a majority of members and staffers that could care less about policy ad governing and more about power/influence/money/profit Abramoff is inevitable. When the hard, tedious work of legislating and oversight is done by people motivated by careerism rather than professionalism not only do you have Abramoff, but you have Michael Brown, Halliburton, and illegal NSA wiretapping.

I could go on and on.

As I told the reader in my private response, I agree with a lot of what he says. But sloppy and misleading journalism really has to be pointed out. There’s no alternative.

We’ve got a senate double-header this year in Ohio. First, it’s Sherrod Brown and Paul Hackett fighting it out for the Democratic nomination. And then one of them is going to square off against Sen. Mike DeWine (R) in November.

You know Paul Hackett of course from late last year when he came really close to winning a seat in Congress in a very Republican congressional district.

Next week he joins us for the week guest-blogging at TPMCafe’s Table for One.

See what Paul has to say. Ask him questions. Join the conversation.

You did what for half a million dollars?

Earlier this morning, we brought you word of Jack Abramoff’s work for the Republic of the Marshall Islands (RMI) – which included arranging for a Congressional Delegation led by Rep. Don Young (R-AK) to visit the islands. But $500,000 in lobbying fees buys you so much more.

As we noted in our first post, Abramoff’s work for the Marshall Islands eventually led to a lawsuit. And in the complaint, obtained by TPMmuckraker.com, Abramoff’s then-firm Preston Gates sets forth the services he provided.

According to the complaint one of Abramoff’s services was (from page 5 of the complaint) …

Drafting, finding sponsorship for, and overseeing the mark-up of three bills on behalf of the RMI concerning payments by the United States and assumption of responsibility for nuclear tests conducted on or near the atolls of Rongelap, Bikini, and Enewetok. This work was interrupted by the non-payment of fees and charges by a new Administration for the RMI.

Now, that’s a full service firm! Abramoff and Co. actually drafted and ushered through three bills on behalf of the RMI. Not advised on them – drafted them.

We’re still trying to get in touch with Young, who was the committee chairman at the time, to find out his side of the story. So far his office isn’t returning our calls.

Three more lawmakers come up in Abramoff case filings — Reps. Capito (R-WV), LaTourette (R-OH) and Young (R-AK).

The specifics are more instances of writing letters on behalf of or favoring Abramoff clients. To the best of the my knowledge, this is the first time that Capito’s name has come up.

Young’s is the key. He keeps coming up in Abramoff related doings. Most recently, of course, is the story we published yesterday here on TPM regarding Young’s Abramoff-arranged trip to the Marshall Islands.

I am, I confess, a little surprised by this. But the Associated Press just doesn’t seem able to come clean on this Reid-Abramoff-Marianas matter.

Let’s jump down into the details.

As you remember, on Thursday John Solomon of the AP wrote a lengthy piece detailing alleged contacts between Jack Abramoff’s team at Greenberg Traurig and Sen. Harry Reid (D-NV).

I followed up with a post explaining what seemed like a key problem with the article. The better part of the article is taken up with detailing Team Abramoff lobbying Reid on behalf of the sweatshop owners of the Marianas Islands, key and notorious. The whole thrust of the narrative suggests an illicit or suspect quid pro quo. But if you look closely what’s never mentioned in the article is what Reid did on the Marianas sweatshop owners behalf — which is of course a rather key detail.

I got on the phone with Reid’s office and the lobbyist in question, Ron Platt, and they both said that Reid was and remained on the side of the debate — he supported the minimum wage bill the Marianas folks opposed. That claim was confirmed by other supporters of the legislation.

In other words, whatever Abramoff and his crew might have tried to persuade Reid to do, he didn’t do it.

That has to be a key part of the story, if you’re discussing contacts between Marianas lobbyists on this issue. Only it’s a part of the story the AP just neglected to mention.

Okay, so jump forward. After he spoke to me, Platt released a statement restating the gist of what he told me.

So what does the AP do with the information? They run a story with the lede that the Abramoff lobbyist confirms the meetings with Harry Reid. In other words, they portray a blackeye for their original story as a further confirmation of their story.

Now, yes, he did ‘confirm’ the meetings. But the fact that he had made contact with Reid’s office was never seriously in dispute by anyone. They note that the lobbyist in question says the billing records overstate the nature of the work. Even this isn’t quite accurate. It’s more that he’s saying the AP’s characterization overstates the nature of the work. But let’s set that aside, because whatever the nature of his lobbying was, it doesn’t address the key issue.

Nowhere in the new article can the AP writers bring themselves to note that Reid never adopted Abramoff’s clients’ position on the issue. So whatever quids Abramoff’s folks were offering up, Reid never gave them a quo. From start to finish he was the co-sponsor of the bill Abramoff’s clients wanted to defeat.

That’s key information — arguably, the central piece of information in the whole case. But the AP keeps pressing their misleading narrative while omitting this key point.

This is a good example of what happens when getting (or in this case, not losing the story) becomes more important than getting the story right.