The articles aren't making clear that it was our buddies at ThinkProgress who blew the Abramoff-Bush connection wide open.
They got their hands on Abramoff's emails proving he had met Bush 12 times, and more. And now it's a massive story. Darn those bloggers.
From MSNBC:
Jack Abramoff said in correspondence made public Thursday that President Bush met him “almost a dozen” times, disputing White House claims Bush did not know the former lobbyist at the center of a corruption scandal.
“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,” Abramoff wrote in an e-mail to Kim Eisler, national editor for the Washingtonian magazine.
Abramoff added that Bush also once invited him to his Texas ranch.
The messages were made public by the American Progress Action Fund, a liberal activist group. Eisler confirmed their accuracy to Reuters but said he did not intend them to become public.
“They reflect the feeling of frustration he has not just with Bush but with all these guys claiming they didn’t know him,” said Eisler, who knew Abramoff through a book he wrote about the Pequot Indian tribe.
Abramoff pleaded guilty to fraud charges in early January and is cooperating with prosecutors in a corruption probe that could implicate lawmakers and officials across
Washington.
Bush has said he never had a discussion with Abramoff and does not remember having his picture taken with him.
