They are a lying dirty bunch. An email exchange, which the AP got, involves not only DeLay and Abramoff, but Abramoff's former assistant, Susan Ralston, who now works for Karl Rove in the White House. The conniving among this crowd showed no bounds. DeLay's story about his relationship with Abramoff and the free trip to Scotland is contradicted by what the DeLay and Abramoff teams were saying at the time. So, someone's been lying. What a surprise:
DeLay has steadfastly maintained he believed that the center paid for the trip as he reported.
The e-mails show that when DeLay's office began preparing the required disclosure reports for the free trip, his aides asked Abramoff's lobbying firm for the cost figures instead of the GOP group.
"Our financial disclosure forms from the England/Scotland trip are due tomorrow afternoon. ... I would appreciate if you would send me your information," a DeLay aide wrote Abramoff's firm.
The e-mails show Abramoff's team provided then-DeLay chief of staff Susan Hirschmann a final cost figure of $75,600 for the weeklong European trip taken by DeLay; his wife, Christine; Hirschmann; Hirschmann's husband; and Rudy.
The e-mails stated DeLay's office could attribute the figures to "the final bookkeeping efforts" by the GOP group. Despite the figure from Abramoff, DeLay's report to Congress put the cost lower, at just over $70,000.
Ralston wrote she had a follow-up conversation with DeLay's office. Hirschmann wanted "a name" of someone at the GOP group who would attest to paying for the trip and was concerned whether the center's executive director, Amy Ridenour, knew about the costs.
"She (Hirschmann) just wants to make sure that if someone starts asking questions that Amy Ridenour knows about these s," Ralston wrote.
