The ABCs of Iraq Injuries

I've got a whole bunch of interesting posts on Abramoff,

Rich Lowry reports:

"Who would have predicted that ten years after taking Congress and promising to clean it up, Republicans would be rocked by their own set of scandals, including the abuse of earmarks for contributors? Actually, it was predictable, given the typical course of revolutions -- a burst of energy, followed by a period of consolidation -- and the inevitable temptations of power. . . .

"The House GOP is still hanging on. But it's a diminished majority, with one of its key leaders tarnished, with its political base restive, with its purpose in doubt. Republicans came to power on the strength of a revolution and have lost their way in an evolution: They came to Washington with an agenda. They built a machine to support that agenda. And as the agenda faded, the machine itself and its not-always-high-minded imperatives took on more prominence. A conservative who works closely with Congress interprets the Jack Abramoff scandal this way: 'It's when the Republican majority lost their moral high ground. The government became their government. The process became their process. The outsiders became the insiders.' "

Josh Marshall says the Abramoff pictures don't mean much; it's the reality behind the pictures:

"Let's just focus on a few key facts. For the first three years of Bush's presidency Abramoff was arguably the most wired Republican lobbyist in Washington.

"Bush doesn't know him?

"Abramoff was a long time associate of one of the president's top political advisors, Grover Norquist and his chief political guru Karl Rove.

"Bush never made his acquaintance?

"Every Republican power player in Washington knew Jack Abramoff. Many of them knew him very, very well. But President Bush never knew him? Their paths never crossed?

"That is simply ridiculous.

"What's more, everyone asking the questions knows it's ridiculous. The problem is that absent a 2+2=5 type statement they don't feel comfortable calling the president out as a liar."