I believe that lobbysists tied to Tom DeLay’s coattails (Rudy worked for both DeLay AND Abramoff & Buckham too worked for DeLay & did dirty deeds for Abramoff) will also get their legal comeuppance some time soon. That guy was/is as crooked as a mountain road & his hangers on/lobbyist pals had to have been just as crooked or moreso to keep up w. him.

I think one thing you may be missing is that Abramoff has his tentacles into so many other lobbyists & Republican members of Congress. He’s not just a lobbyist like all other lobbyists. He’s an uber-lobbyist or in today’s terminology, a meta-lobbyist. All corrupt roads lead to him so to speak. That’s another reason why they lowered the boom on him.

But I do agree w. you that political finances & lobbying need to be drastically overhauled. Only neither the Repubs or Dems have the courage or stomach to do it. But the Repubs have the most to lose since they’re entrenched in power & hence are most standing in the way of reform I’m afraid.

When I said that I was only addressing your post earlier about his tainted charity. In fact, I do believe he should be punished, although not as harshly as the government is talking about currenly.

Look, this is how I look at the whole Abramoff case. Did Abramoff do stuff that was wrong? Sure. Do most lobbyist’s do illegal stuff? Your’e naive if you don’t think so. The only difference was that Abramoff did it on such a grand scale. He was THE top lobbyist.
In my opinion, the whole idea of lobbying is bribery and they should do away with it.
It basically allows the rich to hire the right people who have connections. People can’t honestly believe he’s the only corrupt lobbyist. I compare this case to a case where let’s say Abramoff is on the highway and driving and everyone is speeding including himself. But only he is stopped. That is what the lobbying business is like. Everyone is speeding

while true, he and his partner took millions that weren’t theirs, they made so much more for their Indian tribes than they took

Now that’s a great new standard for the definition of a successful lobbyist. If you make more for your clients than you steal from them then you’re doing a good job. Now, if we could only get the legal system to recognize that standard then Jack might not’ve gone to jail.

1. IN NO WAY AM I saying what he did wasn’t wrong. However, people don’t realize that almost every lobbyist is doing illegal stuff. That is the whole point of hiring a lobbyist. Because they know the right people in Washington to talk to.

2. People don’t realize that, while true, he and his partner took millions that weren’t theirs, they made so much more for their Indian tribes than they took.

being brought up an orthodox Jew (18 years of Jewish day school, 2 years studying in a yeshiva in israel, a year and a half at yeshiva university), an orthodox jew is unique in their commitment to the oral law, namely the Talmud, the Talmud has many things to say about theft and goes into much more detail than the general “lo tignov” mentioned in the old testament. along with the talmud, Orthodox Jews give creedance to many biblical commentaries, including Rashi, Tosafos, Maimonides, Nachmanides and others.

So generally orthodox Jews are unique in their commitment to every minute detail of the law mentioned in the Talmud, which according to them is “halacha moshe misinai”, the oral law passed from moses himself.

my point is that if abramoff claimed to be an Orthodox Jew, that means he claimed to abide strictly to the Talmud’s laws, his lies and thieveries, his very actions actions say that if he studied the talmud’s approach to stealing, he probably didn’t get it.

at best i’d call him a “non-practicing Orthodox Jew”