The contacts took place between February 1996 and August 2001. One of the lobbyists was David Safavian, who later became the Bush administration's chief procurement official and recently was indicted on charges of obstructing investigations of his ties to Abramoff.
Boehner's people are dancing: Boehner doesn't know Abramoff, or if he does he hardly knows him, and our people never talked to his people unless our "midlevel" people talked to his "junior" people, and if they did, it was about "mundane" stuff. The dancers are stumbling over the evidence.
The Mariana records are at odds with the assertion that the contacts were all with midlevel staff members. Two contacts in 1996, according to the records, were with Barry Jackson - a top Boehner aide who served as the congressman's chief of staff.
Apart from the Abramoff connection, can Boehner be trusted to end the practice of trading face time with a congressman for a discounted ride on a corporate jet?
Boehner has traveled extensively courtesy of special interests. He has taken more than three dozen privately financed trips since 2000 to overseas destinations such as Rome, Venice, Paris and Edinburgh, and to domestic resort spots including Boca Raton, Fla., and Pebble Beach, Calif., the latter known for its championship golf and spectacular Pacific Ocean views.
One thing Boehner said Friday is clearly true: he has "good relations with lobbyists." The AP article cites plenty of evidence. Another thing he said is clearly false: Democrats are not "involved in the Abramoff scandal." Funny how Republicans can't identify a single Democrat who has done a single scandalous thing involving Abramoff.
