From Reuters:

WASHINGTON - Lobbyist Jack Abramoff’s guilty plea in a U.S. corruption probe sent shock waves across Washington on Wednesday as top Republicans sought to avoid being tainted by the scandal and Democrats pressed the issue.

President George W. Bush, House of Representatives Speaker Dennis Hastert of Illinois and House Majority Leader Roy Blunt were among Republicans who donated to charities the campaign contributions they had received from Abramoff…

…The Republican National Committee said Bush will return $6,000 that Abramoff, his wife and the Saginaw Chippewa Indian tribe, an Abramoff client, gave to Bush’s 2004 re-election campaign. But the campaign doesn’t plan to return more than $100,000 that Abramoff raised from friends and associates, spokeswoman Tracey Schmitt said.

Okay, a lot of you have been wondering why I haven’t posted anything about Jack Abramoff yet. I’ll explain.

Like the President, like Tom DeLay, Jack Abramoff and I have a history. And like President Bush, I wanted to make sure that I’d cleared my name before I spoke up, because I can’t in any conscience condemn the man before I return any and all direct assistance he’s provided to me over the years. I’ve now done so. Here’s the full disclosure of my association with Mr. Abramoff:


- In 1995, in exchange for getting his nephew a job on a popular PBS children’s show, Jack Abramoff contributed $2,000 to my “Little Felber Achievers” program for inner city youths. He also engineered $45,000 in other contributions. Though the ski chalet time-share in Utah that I purchased with the money was not technically used by any “Little Felber Achievers” (the program was dissolved in 1998, before we’d located any actual “inner city youths”), it was all done quite legally. Still, I am returning the $2,000 to Mr. Abramoff.


- In May of 1997, Jack Abramoff took me on a golfing trip to the Scottish highlands. On the second night of the vacation, Jack also bought me a Glenlivet at the hotel’s bar. The purpose of the trip was to set me up with various Hollywood TV producers in return for my making “a few funny but pointed jokes” on NPR about the Connecticut legislature trying to limit a Native American tribe’s right to open a casino or two. The casinos are now open, and the relationships I formed on the trip have helped me establish myself as a television writer. I have returned the $12 for the scotch plus a dollar for the tip to Mr. Abramoff.


- In July of 2002, I hosted a fundraiser for one of Jack’s clients. This was in return for Jack calling on a noted “friend” who “owed him a favor” to “take care of” another comedy writer who had been offered a job that I wanted. I did not know any of the details of the arrangement, nor did I want to.

About a week after the fundraiser, however, I received a postcard from Jack telling me to read the obituary section of the next day’s LA Times. The next morning I did so, to find that the writer and his wife had perished in a fire at their home. Only his 5 year-old son was saved, albeit very severely burned. A few days later I was offered the writing job, which began the string of good fortune and good jobs that funded my move out here to Hollywood.

It’s hard to put a price on something like that. But in order to avoid even the appearance of impropriety, I have returned the postcard to Mr. Abramoff, along with a 23-cent postcard stamp.

There. That, to my knowledge, is the full extent of the monetary benefits that I received directly from Jack Abramoff, and as you can see, I’ve made more than full restitution for all of them. So with a clear conscience I can now say that I hope that anyone who is implicated by Abramoff’s testimony is prosecuted to the full extent of the law. I have long said that lobbying laws need reform, and perhaps this will be the beginning of a movement. And as I’ve always said (privately, mostly, and often while alone and writing scripts here in the beautiful mountains of Utah, but still…), it’s time to stand up to the influence-peddlers and those who’d benefit from their machinations.