Media Matters documents "the inconsistent tale" of Mehlman and Abramoff. We'd go further and say Ken has just plain lying:
As the scandal surrounding Abramoff has inched closer to the White House, Mehlman has gone from claiming Abramoff was "someone we don't know a lot about" in January, to knowing him "in various capacities" in April and conceding that he had known Abramoff since the mid-1990s in October.The Chair of the RNC has a major ethics issue involving the most notorious, disgraced lobbyist in recent history. Yet, Ken's flitting around the country campaigning against Democrats. How can any reporter let Mehlman get away with bashing Democrats when he has Jack Abramoff draped around his neck?
Because Mehlman was taking care of Abramoff's issue, Tony Rudy, a convicted felon/former top aide to both Abramoff and DeLay, called Mehlman a "rock star." Sure sounds like Ken delivered for them.
When will Ken tell the real story? Or will he lawyer up and shut up? Either way, Ken needs to be asked about Abramoff everywhere he goes. Everywhere.
UPDATE: Exhibit A of the media's failure to question Mehlman on the Abramoff scandal is Newsweek's Howard Fineman who wrote one of his "I'm so inside" columns about having dinner with Ken. This is as close as Fineman got to mentioning the major scandal brewing around Mehlman:
Mehlman is a tough, unsentimental guy — a stickler for detail who is also eager to deal in big ideas and big issues. Not yet 40, a graduate of Harvard Law School, he got his political training in Texas as a protégé of Karl Rove.That's it. Abramoff's name never appeared in the column. From what I can tell, they had dinner last night -- after the LA Times article appeared.
Mehlman has been “Karl Rove’s Karl Rove” for nearly a decade: tinged, though not singed, by controversy — and yet was voted “Campaign Manager of the Year” by fellow political consultants for his handling of Bush-Cheney in ’04.
Note to Howard: Ethics, corruption and cover-ups are a major theme in the elections this year.
