Another day, another Doolittle revelation.

The AP reports today that Rep. Doolittle’s (R-CA) former chief of staff, David Lopez, traveled to Puerto Rico in 2001 – the trip was paid for by Jack Abramoff's firm Greenberg Traurig. That’s against House rules.

Here’s the fun part: Lopez, being a good little soldier, says: “I don't recall that Congressman Doolittle knew the specifics of who paid for the trip."

There’s a problem with that line of defense: Doolittle signed the travel disclosure form. The form said that Greenberg Traurig was paying for the trip. It's hard to believe Doolittle didn't know - at least he was responsible for knowing.

Lopez says that he thought the trip would be “reimbursed by the sponsor” – but even that would have been against ethics committee guidelines. Lobbying firms aren’t supposed to pay for trips. Lopez claims to have consulted with the House ethics committee on this. If he did (and I’m skeptical), he got some really bad advice.

Abramoff represented a Puerto Rican pro-business group called Future of Puerto Rico while he was at Preston Gates, the firm he left in January 2001 to join Greenberg Traurig. Supposedly that would have been the group to sponsor the trip.

The trip is the latest example of connections between Abramoff's interests and Doolittle, a conservative ally of former House Majority Leader Tom DeLay, R-Texas, and a member of the House GOP leadership. Those ties have caught the attention of federal investigators.

Doolittle accepted at least $14,000 in campaign money from Abramoff and tens of thousands of dollars more from Abramoff's tribal clients, and wrote letters to the Interior Department on behalf of two tribes that were clients of Abramoff's firm.

Doolittle's wife did fundraising work for Abramoff, and another former Doolittle aide, Kevin Ring, later went to work for Abramoff as a lobbyist.

Doolittle has already pleaded for more attention from the Justice Department: “Investigate me,” he said. Hopefully he'll get the attention he deserves.

Jack and George

Like I said, Bush may not know Abramoff, but Abramoff certainly knew Bush.

Thinkprogress has a couple emails written by Abramoff to Kim Eisler, the national editor of Washingtonian magazine, in which Abramoff opens up about his relationship with the President.

In one he talks about an invitation to Crawford in August, 2003 (in June of 2003, Abramoff had put together a huge pool of donations for Bush’s reelection campaign, well on his way to being a Pioneer):

YES, I WAS INVITED, DURING THE 2004 CAMPAIGN. IT WAS SATURDAY AUGUST 9, 2003 AT THE RANCH IN CRAWFORD.

And here is Abramoff waxing on about Bush’s memory:

HE HAS ONE OF THE BEST MEMORIES OF ANY POLITICIAN I HAVE EVER MET. IT WAS ONE IF [sic] HIS TRADEMARKS, THOUGH OF COURSE HE CAN’T RECALL THAT HE HAS A GREAT MEMORY! THE GUY SAW ME IN ALMOST A DOZEN SETTINGS, AND JOKED WITH ME ABOUT A BUNCH OF THINGS, INCLUDING DETAILS OF MY KIDS. PERHAPS HE HAS FORGOTTEN EVERYTHING. WHO KNOWS.

He does seem to have forgotten everything, doesn't he? 

Tom DeLay Staggering from the Ashes

Roll Call reports on DeLay’s reelection campaign. Texas’ 22^nd District is shaping up to be the most expensive House race in U.S. History – Delay is hoping to raise $9M and his opponent Nick Lampson is aiming for $5M. That would shatter the old record of $10.3M, set by a California race between Rep. Adam Schiff (D-Calif.) and former Rep. James Rogan (R-Calif.) in 2000. Lampson is already the best funded opponent DeLay has ever faced.

Whether DeLay can actually raise that kind of money is another question. Appealing for help, he wrote a nine page letter to thousands of Republican voters in his district. In it, he defends the trips he took on Abramoff’s dime to the Northern Marianas, Scotland, Russia and England. See if you can spot the misdirection:

“My opponents ignore the good will and positive results from this travel. Instead, they raise phony allegations suggesting the sponsor of these trips was Jack Abramoff when public records and documents I filed clearly showed that these were properly sponsored and paid for by either the National Center for Public Policy or the government of the Northern Marianas.”

Yeah – doesn’t much matter what the documents he filed said, does it? These were trips paid for by Jack Abramoff – by a nonprofit he controlled or actually charged to his credit card. And more on Abramoff:

“A final word on Jack Abramoff: the notion that he was a close friend who wielded influence over me is absolutely untrue. As Whip and Majority Leader, I met with many people who brought issues before Congress and sought support of both Republicans and Democrats.

Translation: Abramoff was just one of many lobbyists who wielded influence over me.

Republican insiders know that DeLay is just one more blow away from being down for the count:

But the Texas Republican knows he will not be able to appeal to the “traditional GOP fundraising establishment” for as much help as he would have sought in the past thanks to his ethics problems, according to sources close to DeLay.

With rumors about potential indictments stemming from the Abramoff probe by the Justice Department, at least some of which center on former DeLay aide Tony Rudy, official Washington is nervous about what will happen next. “No one knows what the next shoe to drop [on DeLay] is going to be,” said a top House Republican leadership aide. “He’s not radioactive, not yet, but if there are indictments handed down, then it will be tough to be seen with him.”

A main part of DeLay’s attempted resurrection involves his reclaiming a seat on the Appropriations Committee. As predicted yesterday, Tom DeLay got that seat Wednesday – which he was only able to do because Rep. Duke Cunningham (R-CA) had some pressing business with the U.S. Attorney’s Office. So – out with a guilty man, in with an indicted man. Says the DCCC: “Allowing Tom DeLay to sit on a committee in charge of giving out money is like putting Michael Brown back in charge of FEMA."

And yes, you heard right: DeLay was assigned to the subcommittee that oversees the Justice Department. He’ll also be on the subcommittee that oversees NASA.

Rep. Jerry Lewis (R-CA) gave him seats on the subcommittee on Science, State, Justice and Commerce as well as the subcommittee on Homeland Security. DeLay’s not leading any of these subcommittees if that makes you feel any better. Yeah, I didn't think so.

Abramoff’s Chef

Yesterday, The Washington Post ran an interview with the former chef at Abramoff’s restaurant, Signatures: “Jack was a good boss. He gave us a restaurant to run, and we got good PR.” But then the PR got worse:

And right at the beginning when the media started pointing fingers, people stopped coming. When your base clientele stops coming, it hurts financially. If they didn't want to be talked about, they didn't show up. We had to go out and start seeking a nonpolitical clientele.

Was it a dramatic drop?

Yes, of course -- almost half the clientele. . . . When you're in the back cooking, if you make somebody unhappy they will tell their friends. This was different. These were whole delegations. The Texas delegation didn't show up anymore. And their friends. And their girlfriends. You lose that clientele.

Obama and McCain Work Side by Side – if Not Together

Roll Call reports:

Sitting at the same table before the Senate Rules and Administration Committee on Wednesday, each announced his own plan to raise the reform bar with a measure to crack down on the practice of earmarking. Obama also unveiled plans for a bill to create an independent enforcement office to uphold the new rules.<snip>

The two went to lengths Wednesday to downplay the dispute, posing with matching smiles for photographers before the Rules panel hearing began and making light of the squabble in their opening remarks.

Said Obama:

"I'm particularly pleased to be sharing this panel with my pen pal, John McCain," Obama (D-Ill.) said with a smile. "And I look forward to working with him on this very important work."

(Here’s the AP’s coverage.)

Roll Call comments that the two plans to reform earmarking are “largely similar.” Here are the details:

McCain’s bill, called the Pork-Barrel Reduction Act, would allow any Senator to challenge an earmarked provision and require 60 votes to overcome the objection. It would force conference reports to be made available 48 hours before a vote. And to promote transparency, any earmark in a bill would have to be disclosed in an accompanying report, along with the name of the lawmaker requesting it, and the amount paid to any lobbyists promoting it.

Obama’s version, called the Integrity in Earmarks Act, would require that earmarks — in addition to their sponsor and justification — be disclosed 72 hours before Senate consideration. They would have to be germane to the bill and listed in its actual text, instead of just the conference report. And like McCain’s bill, the measure would require earmark recipients to disclose how much they paid lobbyists to secure the project.

Obama also wants an “independent ethics commission to enforce lobbying laws.” A great idea, given that the current laws go pretty much unenforced. “The panel would act as an investigative body, with the power to issue subpoenas and compel testimony from witnesses and the production of documents.”

Reform – One Step Forward, Two Steps Back

In a piece on the unsure steps toward getting lobby reform, the NY Times reports that there’s dwindling support for enacting a ban on privately-financed travel. McCain floated an idea to have an independent arbiter to screen the trips, and House Majority Leader Boehner (R-OH) doesn’t like the idea of a ban, even though it was part of the Republican’s original proposal.

The Republicans also can’t get their story straight on earmark reform – Speaker Hastert (R-IL) is fighting to have the process reformed as little as possible; Boehner has made that the centerpiece of his “reform” talk.

Indian Tribe Reform

During another meeting of the Senate Indian Affairs Committee, there was a lot of talk about reform as well. But McCain seems to be wavering on limiting Indian campaign giving. Abramoff loved the tribes as clients because they have no overall limit on contributions:

Under current law and Federal Election Commission regulations, tribes are treated as “persons” and cannot give more money to candidates in an election cycle than what is permitted by other individuals. However, unlike individuals, tribes are not limited in how much they can give in the aggregate to federal candidates or party committees. Tribes, in theory, could donate the maximum of $2,100 to every single Member of Congress. Equally significant, tribes, unlike the political action committees of corporations and unions, may make these donations from tribal funds.<snip>

[McCain] did not indicate a timetable for legislation on Indian campaign finance reforms. Nor did he indicate strongly whether he believes that changes to the law are even warranted. He did say he intended to “ask hard questions” in the coming days.

Burns

The Bozeman Daily Chronicle reports that someone in Sen. Burns’ (R-MT) office edited his Wikipedia entry:

A recent investigation by Wikinews -- Wikipedia's fact-checking service -- found that an unknown editor using an Internet protocol address assigned to the Republican senator's office removed references to a comment Burns made in 1999 calling Arabs "ragheads" and his voting record on Native American issues.

The same person then inserted a glowing paragraph describing the senator as a "voice for the farmer."

As The Washington Post reports, Burns’ office isn’t the only one that’s been tampering with Wikipedia.

The Great Falls Tribune reports that one of Burns’ aids, Ryan Thomas, who took a trip with Abramoff to the 2001 Super Bowl in Tampa, has resigned. Another former Burns aid Will Brooke was also on the trip – all traveling on SunCruz’s corporate jet, which is against Senate rules. Both of them have said that they thought the jet was paid for the Mississippi Choctaws, which would have made it sleazy, but not against Senate rules.

The Pombos Hit the Road

The Tracy Press reports that when Richard Pombo (R-CA) piled his family into an RV for a tour of the West in 2003, the taxpayers picked up the bill:

“This August, my family and I rented an RV and set out to explore the West,” Pombo, R-Tracy, wrote in a 2003 article posted on the Resources Committee’s Web site.

“We spent two weeks on vacation, stopping along the way to enjoy the splendor of many of our national parks.”

Pombo was reimbursed $4,935.87 to rent the RV and spent $1,500.51 on a government credit card for “travel subsistence” during a two-week span from July 27 to Aug. 11, 2003, according to a Resources Committee spending ledger obtained by the Press.

Pombo is chairman of the House Resources Committee, which oversees the parks.

Via Fired Up!

In Other Muck 

Hotline reports that the Alabama Democrats are using Gov. Riley’s Abramoff connections against him. Among other links, Michael Scanlon, Abramoff’s sleazy partner, served as Riley’s aid – part of a $500,000 payment filtered from Scanlon’s company to the Republican Governors Association made its way to Riley.

Via Nite Swimming, an NPR story on the high demand for defense lawyers who specialize in federal corruption law.

Did we miss something? Was there local coverage in your area we should know about? Email us at talk@talkingpointsmemo.com with the Subject line "Daily Muck" and let us know.