Bush Denies Knowing Abramoff

[jackieMN]

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20060308/ap_on_go_pr_wh/bush_abramoff.

[mahatmakanejeeves]

1. I was going to say, is this really LBN?, but

apparently this must be yet another episode in which * had no knowledge whatsoever that (fill in the blank).

[savemefromdumbya]

2. He doesn't know 'Enron Ken' either

[threadkillaz]

7. Kenron.

ahh lol.

[BlueIris]

3. "I did not have bribery relations with that (wo)man!"

Ahem. One can only hope.

[UpInArms]

4. Related: President still denies knowing ex-lobbyist; Vanity Fair reports o

President still denies knowing ex-lobbyist; Vanity Fair reports otherwise

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/11733701/

Updated: 8:21 p.m. ET March 8, 2006

WASHINGTON - Convicted lobbyist Jack Abramoff says President Bush knew him well enough to joke with him about weightlifting. “What are you benching, buff guy?” Abramoff said Bush asked him.

The president has said he doesn’t know Abramoff.

Abramoff said he finds it hard to believe Bush doesn’t remember the 10 or so photos he and members of his family had snapped with the president and first lady.

<snip>

“I frankly don’t even remember having my picture taken with the guy,” Bush added. “I don’t know him.”

Abramoff: We met a dozen times

A few days later, Abramoff wrote to Washingtonian magazine that he had met briefly with the president nearly a dozen times and that Bush knew him well enough to make joking references to Abramoff’s family.

...more...

and from http://www.vanityfair.com/pdf/pressroom/advance_Abramoff.pdf

Then there’s presidential adviser Karl Rove. He has not spoken of his relationship with Abramoff, but the White House insists Rove, too, barely knew him, acknowledging only that they met at a political event in the 1990s. “He would describe him as a casual acquaintance,” a White House spokesman said. But Abramoff was Rove’s spiritual heir at the College Republicans in the 1980s; both men headed the group, and the two met from time to time in connection with it. After George W. Bush took office, Susan Ralston, Abramoff’s administrative assistant, took the same position with Rove at the White House, where Abramoff met with Rove at least once. (An eyewitness also recalls seeing Abramoff emerge from a car near the White House and have what looked like a pre-arranged, street-corner meeting with Rove; Abramoff says he can’t recall that.) Rove dined several times at Signatures and was Abramoff s guest in the owner’s box at the N.C.A.A. basketball playoffs a few years ago, sitting for much of the game by Abramoff’s side. Recently, three former associates of Abramoff’s have told how he frequently mentioned his strong ties to Rove, and one described being present when Abramoff took a phone call from Rove’s office.

<snip>

There are other people from Abramoff’s more distant past who also never knew him, such as former Republican House Speaker (and rumored 2008 presidential candidate) Newt Gingrich, who first never met Abramoff during the latter’s firebrand days atop the College Republicans. “Before his picture appeared on TV and in the newspapers, Newt wouldn’t have known him if he fell across him. He hadn’t seen him in 10 years,” Gingrich’s spokesman, Rick Tyler, tells me. That this especially rankles Abramoff becomes clear as he rummages through a box of old memorabilia with me. “Here’s Dick Armey,” he tells me.“Here’s Newt.Newt. Newt. Reagan. More Newt. Newt with Grover this time, and with Rabbi Lapin. But Newt never met me. Ollie North.Newt. Can’t be Newt . . . he never met me. Oh, Newt! What’s he doing there? Must be a Newt look-alike. I have more pictures of him than I have of my wife. Newt again! It’s sick! I thought he never met me!”

[WhiteTara]

16. weren't there 172 sign ins at the WH

during the first 10 months of *'s reign? IIRC, Abramoff was part of the transition team

[rodeodance]

5. A. says Dems "I was there to plan the invasion of Iraq." te he.

.....Abramoff said he thought about, but decided against, selling his photos with the Bushes for money. Publications were making Abramoff offers that rose to the low seven figures, Vanity Fair reports.

He blames the Bush administration for the media attention.

"My so-called relationship with Bush, Rove and everyone else at the White House has only become important because instead of just releasing details about the very few times I was there, they created a feeding frenzy by their deafening silence," Abramoff told the magazine.

"The Democrats, on the other hand, are going overboard, virtually insisting I was there to plan the invasion of Iraq."

[TankLV]

6. He also said Iraq had WMD and ties to 911.

I never have any sleepless nights or other problems by believing the OPPOSITE of what he spews is true!

Who cares what that pathological liar says - WE certainly don't!

[ShockediSay]

8. meanwhile all proposed lobbying "reforms" are a joke

meals? travel? the corruption is in the money bags, the bagmen that give them, the bagmen (and women) that take them.

If we want real reform we need to cut the heart out of the pay to play system of campaign financing.

[antonialee839]

9. Somewhere in the distance a cock is crowing.

[yellowcanine]

15. To be fair he gets two more denials before the cock crows. Of course

Jack off isn't Christ either.

[951-Riverside]

10. If we get our asses kicked in Iran

I guess he'll deny knowing that he went to war with it.

:rofl:

YOU FREEPS GOT WHO YOU VOTED FOR HE NEVER HID THAT HE WAS A SHITFACED MORON IN 2000/2004!!!!

[Nailzberg]

11. For once I believe him.

His memory is too shotty to remember meeting anyone.

[politicat]

12. Yet another "Lost Weekend" for the Shrubster.

He has got to lay off the booze, or his liver's going to move out in protest.

[classysassy]

13. Serial lier

The unpresident would never lie to his subjects.

[yellowcanine]

14. He doesn't know Cheney either. Just some guy that he took on to

fill out the ticket, so to speak.

[rodeodance]

17. Wed Mar 8, 5:47 PM ET (date of article)

[genieroze]

18. What a liar.