Froomkin, of all people, may have (I'm gonna say inadvertently) buried a lede in his Wednesday column. Quoting an AP piece on the subject of Susan Ralston's Dance of the Seven Veils of Immunity, there is the line

Waxman's memo is worth a read. As Waxman notes: "In September 2006, Chairman Davis and Ranking Member Waxman released a staff report summarizing what the Committee had learned from a review of billing records and e-mails provided to the Committee by Mr. Abramoff's former lobbying firm, Greenberg Traurig.

Ralston, of course, was Abramoff's former top aide who he conveeeeeniently handed off to the Dark Lord when one K. Rove needed a top aide when they completed their hijacking of the US executive branch. Think of Ralston as the hijacker who guarded the cockpit door against passengers trying to bang it open with the food cart.

But what makes this particular story jump out at me is that a few weeks ago Lambert ran across a record of some Abramoff-related emails as we were digging into the [ILLEGAL] private communications net we've been calling "gwb43.com" run for the Republican National Committee [RNC.com] by Smartech Corp out of Chattanooga TN. [with backup storage at Coptix.com also of C'noogie--wouldn't want Jeffy to think we'd forgotten him!]

In the header was an Abramoff message--I forget who it was to, might have been Ralston herself--and the return address caught my eye for having the letters "gt" in it.

Awhile back on "Law & Order" they had a scenario where a couple of guys had been conniving wickedly, but the only witness who could testify against either was the other one of the pair. They had the one guy all set to sing and then they put him on the stand and he said he and the other fellow had run up to Massachusetts the day before and gotten married, therefore he was refusing to testify under spousal privilege.

That of course was fiction. The following is what passes for reality these days. At least these two crooks aren't infested with Teh Ghey. From Taegan Goddard yesterday:

Two Bush administration officials "who have been linked in scandal are now linked in wedlock. The union of former Deputy Interior Secretary J. Steven Griles and Sue Ellen Wooldridge could have implications for the investigation into Griles's ties to ex-lobbyist Jack Abramoff," The Hill reports.

Ain't it just [sniff, sniff, weep, blow nose, accidentally open large box filled with metal BBs onto the red wedding carpet] so sweet? Republican devotion to marriage & traditional family 'n' shit...it just gets me right [pats hand over lower digestive tract] here. But to continue:

Xan, keep working those emails. I'll let Laura do the talking:

WP: GSA chief is accused of playing politics, potentially violating the Hatch Act:

Witnesses have told congressional investigators that the chief of the General Services Administration and a deputy in Karl Rove's political affairs office at the White House joined in a videoconference earlier this year with top GSA political appointees, who discussed ways to help Republican candidates.

With GSA Administrator Lurita Alexis Doan and up to 40 regional administrators on hand, J. Scott Jennings, the White House's deputy director of political affairs, gave a PowerPoint presentation on Jan. 26 of polling data about the 2006 elections.

When Jennings concluded his presentation to the GSA political appointees, Doan allegedly asked them how they could "help 'our candidates' in the next elections," according to a March 6 letter to Doan from Rep. Henry A. Waxman (D-Calif.), chairman of the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee. Waxman said in the letter that one method suggested was using "targeted public events, such as the opening of federal facilities around the country."

Hey, Josh, everybody- is this relevant?

Former Republican super-lobbyist Jack Abramoff, sentenced to almost six years in prison for his fraudulent purchase of a South Florida gambling fleet, can receive a reduced sentence if he continues to assist prosecutors in a far-reaching Washington public corruption probe, federal officials said Wednesday.

The U.S. attorney's office in Miami filed the paperwork seeking to reduce Abramoff's 70-month prison term stemming from the SunCruz Casinos case, but did not specify any time off his sentence.

Instead, prosecutors asked U.S. District Judge Paul Huck to delay that decision until a hearing is held to weigh Abramoff's value as a witness in the Washington influence-peddling investigation.

Forget Gonzo, let's tie Rove to criminals more firmly, shall we?

In 2002, GOP lobbyist Jack Abramoff was secretly lobbying on behalf of the Guam Superior Court against a judicial reform bill pending in the U.S. Congress. Abramoff won this contract by telling Court officials he had access to then-Majority Leader Tom DeLay (R-TX) and other Republican leaders. Perhaps due to Abramoff's lobbying, the judicial reform bill died at the end of the 107th Congress in 2002. Instead of paying Abramoff directly, the Court funneled its payments through 36 separate $9,000 checks made out to a lawyer named Howard Hills in Laguna Beach, California.

In November 2002, a grand jury in Guam began investigating the secret lobbying arrangement. The day after the grand jury issued subpoenas, the Bush Administration demoted the U.S. prosecutor in charge of the investigation, Frederick Black, who had been the acting U.S. attorney in Guam for 12 years. Black was replaced by Leonardo Rapadas, an attorney recommended to Karl Rove by the Guam Republican Party, and barred from investigating public corruption cases.

Oddly, or not, I haven't been hearing a lot about Democratic hearings investigating Abramoff's various affairs. (Wampum, of course, has been all over this story, which, among other things, involves the theft of billions of dollars by oil companies. Not to mention the slavery, prostitution, and forced abortions in the Northern Marianas, clients of Our Jack).

Then, there's also the McCain [genuflects] angle. Kossack dengre reminds us:

No, no, not Mark Foley--He's bound and gagged in rehab. Jack Abramoff:

"What is most important, however, is that this matter is kept discreet," Abramoff wrote to a colleague at the Preston, Gates & Ellis law firm. "We do not want the opponents to think that we are trying to buy the taxpayer movement."

No, no, of course not.

The Senate report criticized "a troubling practice" by Americans for Tax Reform and other nonprofits of accepting tax-exempt donations from Abramoff's clients to advocate for their issues -- in op-eds, position statements and letters to members of Congress. ATR's advocacy "appears indistinguishable from lobbying undertaken by for-profit, taxable firms."

The e-mails show Abramoff and Norquist explicitly discussed client donations to Norquist's group in exchange for Norquist's support on issues.

Gotta love these guys. Drowning Uncle Sam in the bathtub--while picking his pockets!

But that's all business as usual under Republican rule. Here's the really amazing part of this story: