Taken from Think Progress:

 

The White House maintains that Bush does not “recall” meeting Abramoff and, if they ever did meet, it was only in passing at a large gathering:

 

MR. McCLELLAN: Yes, I said it’s possible that they would have met at a holiday reception or some other widely attended gathering. The President does not know him, nor does the President recall ever meeting him.

 

Q But he has the special designation as a Pioneer, as Terry was alluding to, raising more than $100,000. And he attended, as you told us, three events, holiday receptions at the White House. How likely is it that the President would not have met him —

 

MR. McCLELLAN: That’s why I said it’s possible. But I just told you what I know at this point, and the President doesn’t recall meeting him and he certainly doesn’t know him.

 

It’s not just possible, it happened.

 

The Texas Observer reports that Abramoff met with Bush on May 9, 2001, with his clients, the Coushatta tribe. (The chairman of the Coushatta tribe initially denied the meeting occured, but subsequently admitted that it did.) Abramoff charged his client 25,000 to arrange the meeting.

Do you have any idea how many people the President sees in just one day? He could have met someone several times and not remember it. Most politicians wouldn't. They would rely on staff to give them notes about people they are meeting, so they sound like they remember.

Do you have any idea how many people the President sees in just one day?  He could have met someone several times and not remember it.  Most politicians wouldn't.  They would rely on staff to give them notes about people they are meeting, so they sound like they remember.

 

Ok. Keep your blinders on.

Evil, I agree with you, he probably has forgotten meeting this guy. It's been four years, and I'm pretty sure more important stuff has crossed his mind than a piss-ant influence peddler.

Ok.  Keep your blinders on.

And you keep your horns showing and hatred flowing.

http://www.texasobserver.org/showArticle_n...sp?ArticleID=13

 

Four months after he took the oath of office in 2001, President George W. Bush was the attraction, and the White House the venue, for a fundraiser organized by the alleged perpetrator of the largest billing fraud in the history of corporate lobbying. In May 2001, Jack Abramoff’s lobbying client book was worth $4.1 million in annual billing for the Greenberg Traurig law firm. He was a friend of Bush advisor Karl Rove. He was a Bush “Pioneer,” delivering at least $100,000 in bundled contributions to the 2000 campaign. He had just concluded his work on the Bush Transition Team as an advisor to the Department of the Interior. He had sent his personal assistant Susan Ralston to the White House to work as Rove’s personal assistant. He was a close friend, advisor, and high-dollar fundraiser for the most powerful man in Congress, Tom DeLay. Abramoff was so closely tied to the Bush Administration that he could, and did, charge two of his clients $25,000 for a White House lunch date and a meeting with the President. From the same two clients he took to the White House in May 2001, Abramoff also obtained $2.5 million in contributions for a non-profit foundation he and his wife operated.

http://www.texasobserver.org/showArticle_n...sp?ArticleID=13

 

Four months after he took the oath of office in 2001, President George W. Bush was the attraction, and the White House the venue, for a fundraiser organized by the alleged perpetrator of the largest billing fraud in the history of corporate lobbying. In May 2001, Jack Abramoff’s lobbying client book was worth $4.1 million in annual billing for the Greenberg Traurig law firm. He was a friend of Bush advisor Karl Rove. He was a Bush “Pioneer,” delivering at least $100,000 in bundled contributions to the 2000 campaign. He had just concluded his work on the Bush Transition Team as an advisor to the Department of the Interior. He had sent his personal assistant Susan Ralston to the White House to work as Rove’s personal assistant. He was a close friend, advisor, and high-dollar fundraiser for the most powerful man in Congress, Tom DeLay. Abramoff was so closely tied to the Bush Administration that he could, and did, charge two of his clients $25,000 for a White House lunch date and a meeting with the President. From the same two clients he took to the White House in May 2001, Abramoff also obtained $2.5 million in contributions for a non-profit foundation he and his wife operated.

That well may have happened. But, at least it wasn't money from the Chinese government.

Ok.  Keep your blinders on.

Do you remember who you had a meeting with four years ago? I have trouble remembering meetings from a few months back.

Do you remember who you had a meeting with four years ago?  I have trouble remembering meetings from a few months back.

 

I remember everyone I had a meeting with that also happened to donate over $100,000 to me and was on my Presedential Transition Team. Better chance that I'd remember that person if they were a friend to my advisor Karl Rove.

And you keep your horns showing and hatred flowing.

 

 

Unfortunately for people like him hatred of Bush is the only message they have and they will never get anywhere with it.

That well may have happened.  But, at least it wasn't money from the Chinese government.

 

 

Oh but that was the golden boy Al Gore. Thats ok. Nothing wrong with that.

I remember everyone I had a meeting with that also happened to donate over $100,000 to me and was on my Presedential Transition Team.  Better chance that I'd remember that person if they were a friend to my advisor Karl Rove.

 

BigSqwert, the Bush supporters are completely right. There is no way Bush can remember, since Bush is so STUPID to remember anything that he ever did wrong! That's the fact.

 

Abramoff is only a friend of Karl Rove who donated $100,000.00 to Bush's campaign. There is no way he can remember. He got no brain!

 

Sometimes, supporting can be so blind!

BigSqwert, the Bush supporters are completely right.  There is no way Bush can remember, since Bush is so STUPID to remember anything that he ever did wrong!  That's the fact. 

 

Abramoff is only a friend of Karl Rove who donated $100,000.00 to Bush's campaign.  There is no way he can remember.  He got no brain!

 

Sometimes, supporting can be so blind!

 

 

YEAH YEAH.......BUSH IS STUPID.......HES CORRUPT.......YEAH YEAH

 

 

That kind of message is really going to get your side somewhere.

Edited January 7, 200620 yr by NUKE_CLEVELAND

YEAH YEAH.......BUSH IS AN STUPID.......HES CORRUPT.......YEAH YEAH

That kind of message is really going to get your side somewhere.

They keep trying. That's for sure.

"BUSH IS AN STUPID."

 

That's funny.

"BUSH IS AN STUPID."

 

That's funny.

 

 

Thats what I get for changing what I wanted to say in mid flight. I was originally going to say "Bush is an idiot"

 

 

Being hungover sucks.

I remember everyone I had a meeting with that also happened to donate over $100,000 to me and was on my Presedential Transition Team.  Better chance that I'd remember that person if they were a friend to my advisor Karl Rove.

 

Yeah, I would remember every person on here that I met 4 years ago. Especially if they were a friend of a friend...

 

http://www.tpj.org/docs/pioneers/pioneers_...00PioneersMajor

Major-League Pioneers for 2000

 

David G. Albert

Anthony J. Alexander

Joe B. Allen III

A. Paul Anderson

George Leon Argyros

Jorge L. Arrizurieta

Jeanie Austin

Alfred S. Austin

Joe L. Barton

Lee Bass

Lawrence E. Bathgate II

George S. Bayoud Jr.

Henry C. Beck III

Louis A. Beecherl Jr.

Dennis R. Berman

Wayne & Lea Berman

Roland W. Betts

Teel Bivins

James J. Blosser

Joseph H. Bogosian

Michael M. Boone

Rudy Boschwitz

Katherine E. Boyd

Daniel H. Branch

Stephen & Kimmy F. Brauer

Tim Bridgewater

Nancy Goodman Brinker

William O. Brisben

Leslie J. Brorsen

C. David Brown II

W. L. Brown Jr.

Christopher B. Burnham

William H. T. 'Bucky' Bush

Jonathan Bush

Joseph C. Canizaro

Stephen G. Canton

Alvin "Pete" R. Carpenter

Alice Clement Carrington

Charles M. Cawley

G.W. "Bill" Ceverha

Elaine Chao

Martha Chayet

Robert B. Chernin

Chris Christie Esq.

James H. Click

Leonard S. Coleman Jr.

Herbert F. Collins

Peter R. Coneway

James Michael Connolly

Natale "Nat" G. Conti

Bob Corker

James B. Culbertson

William J. Danhof

Robert Addison Day Jr.

Robert H. Dedman Jr.

Robert M. Devlin

William O. DeWitt Jr.

Jennifer Dunn

Patrick J. Durkin

James Dwyer

Richard J. Egan

John Engler

Melvyn J. Estrin

Charles "Tre" W. Evers III

J. Nelson Fairbanks

Robert Fee

Thomas Martin Fiorentino Jr.

C. Edward Floyd

Thomas C. Foley

William P. Foley II

Matt Fong

Jose Angel Fourquet

Sam Fox

James B. Francis Jr.

Bradford M. Freeman

Russell F. Freeman

Jeff Fuqua

George R. Gilmore

Tony Gioia

David F. Girard-diCarlo

Charles L. Glazer

D. Stephen Goddard Jr.

Stephen Goldsmith

William Gormley

Robert T. Grand

Maurice 'Hank' R. Greenberg

Mark A. Guzzetta

Fred Jones Hall

Adele Hall

Tim Hammonds

James "Buck" Harless

James A. Haslam II

Ellsworth G. Havens

Joyce A. Haver

Richard Heath

David V. Hedley

John M. Hennessy

Hans H. Hertell

R. Steven Hicks

Michael R. Hightower

J. Roger Hirl

Alfred Hoffman Jr.

Robert B. Holland III

David Horowitz

Nevils Dudley Horton Jr.

Allan B. Hubbard

Kathy Hubbard

Randall D. Hubbard

James R. Huffines

Richard E. Hug

Gaylord T. Hughey Jr.

John C. Huizenga

Chris Jenny

Walter E. Johnson

Thomas L. Johnson Sr.

Robert Wood Johnson IV

Karen Alexandra Johnson

Don D. Jordan

Sheldon B. Kamins

Stephen Kass

Munr Kazmir

Craig Keeland

E.G. "Ken" Kendrick

Bobbie & William Greene Kilberg

Nancy Kinder

James Louis Kittle Jr.

Robert "Bob" K. Kjellander Jr.

Dorothy Bush Koch

C. Michael Kojaian

Hersh Kozlov

Thomas R. Kuhn

E. Floyd Kvamme

David M. Laney

James (& Sandy) C. Langdon Jr.

Franklin L. Lavin

Kenneth & Linda Lay

Fred 'Ted' W. Lazenby

Howard H. Leach

Ronald Steve Letbetter

Tom & Nancy Loeffler

Jeff B. Love

John B. Mahaffey

Thomas P. Marinis Jr.

Robert & Mary Jane Martinez

William Martini

Sharon L. McCutchin

Colin Riley McMillan

Andrea & Dean McWilliams

Gualberto Medina

Jules Frank Mermoud

David A. Metzner

Vance C. Miller

David Miner

Stephan M. Minikes

Suzan Mitchell

Philip O'Bryan Montgomery III

H. Gary Morse

Dennis Muchmore

Robert Madison Murphy

Palmer N. Murray

Charles D. Nash Jr.

Patrick M. Nesbitt

Andres R. Nevares

James B. Nicholson

Dennis E. Nixon

Alan P. Novak

Erle A. Nye

Robert J. O'Connell

Joseph J. O'Donnell

Joseph I. O'Neill III

John Ong

Bill Owens

Patrick C. Oxford

William J. Palatucci

John N. Palmer Sr.

Anthony & Margaret W. Parker

James E. Paul Jr.

Bill Paxon

Marshall B. Payne

Stephen P. Payne

Tom Petway III

Robert H. Pickens

Donald E. Powell

Heinz C. Prechter

John Price

Chesley Pruet

John S. Rainey

Ralph E. Reed Jr.

James M. Reynolds III

Mercer Reynolds III

Tom Ridge

A. W. Riter Jr.

Sig Rogich

Raul Romero

John D. Rood

Evans Rose Jr.

Edward W. Rose III

Larry Ruvo

John "Chip" Saltsman Jr.

A. R. "Tony" Sanchez Jr.

Dwight C. Schar

William R. Scherer Jr.

Joel A. Schleicher

Rockwell A. Schnabel

Peter Secchia

Nicholas T. Serafy Jr.

Allan "Bud" Shivers Jr.

Ned L. Siegel

Martin & Audrey J. Silverstein

James P. Simmons

Gregory Slayton

Barbara Sobel

Alex G. Spanos

Ronald P. Spogli

John R. Stafford

Manuel N. Stamatakis

Dorothy Stapleton

Roger T. Staubach

Glenn Dale Steil

Charles J. Swindells

Peter Terpeluk Jr.

Sol Trujillo

Jack C. Vaughn Jr.

Rene Vazquez Botet

Thomas E. Wagner

Raymond & Ann Wagner Jr.

Martha C. Walda

Roger Windham Wallace

Frederick L. Webber

Ronald Weiser

William F. Weld

Paul F. Welday

Jimmy Westcott

Robert H. Whilden Jr.

Jack Roger Williams

George M. Williams

Robert Jones Wright

Charles J. Wyly Jr.

Zachariah P. Zachariah

Kenneth B. Zangara

Edited January 7, 200620 yr by vandy125

Wow vandy! All those people were part of the Bush Transitional team? Must have been a big team.

Wow vandy!  All those people were part of the Bush Transitional team?  Must have been a big team.

 

Just saying that there are a lot of people who have donated a lot of money to his campaigns. There are also a ton of people involved in getting him to the position that he is in. According to this Washington Post article, there are 474 members of the "transition team."

 

http://www.commondreams.org/cgi-bin/print....s01/0117-02.htm

Just saying that there are a lot of people who have donated a lot of money to his campaigns.  There are also a ton of people involved in getting him to the position that he is in.  According to this Washington Post article, there are 474 members of the "transition team."

 

http://www.commondreams.org/cgi-bin/print....s01/0117-02.htm

Touche!

Ok.  Keep your blinders on.

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

"Selective amnesia"?

 

Hmmmmm.

BigSqwert, the Bush supporters are completely right.  There is no way Bush can remember, since Bush is so STUPID to remember anything that he ever did wrong!  That's the fact. 

 

Abramoff is only a friend of Karl Rove who donated $100,000.00 to Bush's campaign.  There is no way he can remember.  He got no brain!

 

Sometimes, supporting can be so blind!

 

How much money did the Bush campaign raise in that election?

Sadly here I think I agree with the Republicans, George W. Bush is only 1 man, and not a smart man at that. If you expect him to remember every person he's met over the last 6 years, you're pushing it. This is not like Ahmad Chalabi, where the guy not only met with Bush, he sat behind Laura at the SOTU speech right before the Admin denied ever meeting him. In this case, you're talking about 1 contributer among hundreds.

 

I need more than proof that Bush met with the guy 1-2 times to care that Bush met with him 1-2 times. Thus far, I've basically come to believe that the Abramoff mess is fundamentally a Congressional one, because Abramoff really used his influence on Congresspeople. When you get multiple free skyboxes, free golf functions, and free flights to Saigon, along with $100,000+ all bundled because of 1 guy, you will know who he is if you're a congressman winning election based on a few million dollars.

 

However, if he's just donating to the President, that's not proving the President was involved. Show me proof of multiple sessions between the Pres and the guy, or travel for the President arranged for the guy, or other meetings arranged by the guy, and I'll change my opinion, but thus far I haven't seen full evidence that the Bush Admin knew what Abramoff was doing like, say, Delay did.

I think Abramoff and Bush knew each other and Bush knew of him, but didn't give him the level of access that would taint him.

 

To say that there were 400+ people on the transition team and that the President couldn't be expected to know all of them is a bit disingenuous. Learning a little about how that works, I'm fairly certain that Abramoff wouldn't be at the level of transition teamness that I would be, were I on the team, but rather at the level of the top 50 or so people that Bush would know. Or at least know of. The people Bush wouldn't have known would be the circles that I run in, the community organizers who put together events and basic idea of policy, the low level press and political hacks who feed at whatever comes down. Jack Abramoff was not one of those in 2000-2001.

I agree that it's of little consequence whether they knew each other. But for me the point is, again, the administration getting caught in a deceit.

 

For Scotty Mac to be given marching orders to tell the press 'He doesn’t know him. He doesn’t know him . . . He never met him except maybe at a party . . . ' just shows how little they care about looking stupid.

 

How can there not be a searchable record of all the scheduled meetings the president has? No, I don't expect he's going to remember them all, but I assume there is a way staffers can turn up a record of the meeting by typing Abramoff's name into a White House database or something.

 

As for the meeting itself, I'm sure it was inoccuous as far as the president's side of things. So why not arm Scotty with the correct information so he can say, 'The President has met with thousands of individuals on official presidential business. ThePresident has met with Mr. Abrammoff and a client on at least one occassion as far as we can tell, on this date, and that's the extent of their relationship beyond Mr. Abrammoff's membership in the Bush Pioneers.'

 

At least then he'snot going to be blindsided when a reporter takes five minutes to check the claim that the two dodn't know each other.