2nd Senator to Return Abramoff Funds; Lobbyist Paid Columnist

The money that was donated to Burns from Abramoff and his lobbying associates will be given to Indian charities, Burns said.

The Billings Gazette reported this week that Burns's former chief of staff, Will Brooke, had volunteered to talk to Justice Department officials about Abramoff's interactions with Burns. Burns has said that he has not been contacted by federal investigators.

Congressional committees are examining allegations that Abramoff may have defrauded his Indian clients and improperly influenced lawmakers. A partner of Abramoff, public relations executive Michael Scanlon, pleaded guilty in November to conspiring to bribe a congressman and is cooperating with federal authorities.

In the Bandow case, Jamie Dettmer, Cato's communications director, said officials at the think tank learned of the payments Tuesday when contacted by a reporter for Business Week, which reported the story on its Web site yesterday. Bandow admitted writing as many as two dozen articles for payments from Abramoff of between $1,000 to $2,000 per piece, Dettmer said.

"We accepted his resignation," Dettmer said. "Doug acknowledges it was a serious lapse in judgment. This is a think tank that has a lot of integrity, and we are very zealous guardians of the reputation of this think tank. . . . We are secure in the knowledge that our other scholars have not been doing this."

Bandow, who was hospitalized in San Diego for knee surgery, could not be reached for comment.

Another person who has admitted accepting payment from Abramoff for favorable op-ed pieces is Peter J. Ferrara, a Social Security expert and senior policy adviser at the Institute for Policy Innovation, Business Week reported. In a telephone interview, Ferrara said he has stopped writing columns for lobbying firms but sees nothing wrong with the practice as long as he is expressing his own views.

On Capitol Hill, Sen. John McCain (Ariz.) became the first Republican to call for an overhaul of lobbying laws as a way to clean up in the wake of the Abramoff scandals. Previously, only Democrats had proposed tightening the rules in reaction to the ties between lobbyists and lawmakers.

McCain recommended that indirect lobbying by urging voters to contact lawmakers be disclosed for the first time, that former government officials be barred from lobbying for a longer period of time and that lobbyists disclose any gifts to lawmakers worth $20 or more.

Separately, former Christian Coalition leader Ralph Reed said in a speech earlier this month that he regrets funding an anti-gambling campaign with money from Abramoff's clients who had backed casinos. "Had I known then what I know now, I would not have undertaken that work," Reed told a Christian youth group in Georgia where he is running for lieutenant governor.

Staff writer Christopher Lee and database editor Derek Willis contributed to this report.