I keep meaning to look more closely into the Abramoff scandals, particularly since they’re now creeping into the Department of the Interior, where they look set to burn once-lobbyist, then-Deputy Secretary of Interior, then-lobbyist-again Steven Griles, who never received quite the full-throated demonization from green groups that he deserved.
If all the ins-and-outs confuse you, Carl Pope has provided a cogent summary. It ends thusly:
You read it here first — despite the still unfolding news about Senate Majority leader Bill Frist’s blind trust and Alaska Senator Lisa Murkowski’s denial of a conflict of interest in building a “bridge to nowhere” near land her family owns — the maze of money exchanges and influence buying at the Interior department may turn out to be the biggest financial scandals of the Bush administration. I’m guessing they lie somewhere within the as yet barely probed innards of the Department. And if my hunch proves correct, I’ll bet it won’t just be Indian gaming that’s involved — Alaska’s oil wealth will be somewhere in the picture.
Another Teapot Dome scandal appears to be brewing.
