abramoff scandal. norquist scandal. rove scandal.

* mark kleinman weighs in on jesselee's post on the ties between abramoff and terrorists (that i discussed here):

"Jesselee neglects to connect what may be the most important dot of all: from Norquist to Karl Rove... Norquist, thorough the agency of Rove's assistant Susan Ralston, was able to determine which lobbyists could, and which could not, get through to the Boy Genius...

Access to arguably the most powerful man in Washington was controlled by someone whose loyalty to the country against its most dangerous current adversaries is dubious at best.

That, I submit, is a scandal...

Any serious Islamist agent of influence in today's Washington won't be wearing a black turban; he will wear a two-thousand- dollar suit, an Adam Smith necktie, and an American flag lapel pin. That's the world we live in, and we'd better get used to it.

If we continue to run a money-dominated political system, we will continue to be vulnerable to the purchase of influence by those with access to a slice of the billions of dollars we send abroad to fuel our SUV's. In a hostile world, corruption may cost us a lot more than our money."

Go read the rest of Mark's post. It might be a scandal indeed.

To that, let me add that on July 29, Ralston testified before the Plame-Gate jury. And in a WaPo story dated Sep 13, Norquist said he was not aware that she had even testified. i.e. 6 weeks after Ralston testified, and 6 weeks after *I* knew that she had testified, he was claiming that he didnt know anything about it - despite that fact that he worked closely with her, *and* it was widely suggested at the time that Ralston's involvement meant that Rove was indeed a target.

Of course, Ralston also used to work for Norquist's buddy, Abramoff.

At the time, I wrote: "thats categorically absurd. even i knew that she had testified - why is Norquist lying?"

And to add some more meat to Kleinman's concerns, lets go back to that sep27, 2001, AP article:

"SunCruz Casinos has turned over photographs and other documents to FBI investigators after employees said they recognized some of the men suspected in the terrorist attacks as customers."

SunCruz was Abramoff's company, of course - with floating casinos which operated outside the US regulatory environment, which would be considered by some to be prime money-laundering territory.