The Hill: High-stakes players who gambled at the table with Casino Jack

The Hill
News
Josephine Hearn
December 06, 2005

http://www.hillnews.com/thehill/export/TheHill/News/Frontpage/120705/spread.html

In the fall of 2003, a butterfly in Louisiana flapped its wings. The American Press in Lake Charles reported that members of the gambling-rich Louisiana Coushatta Indian tribe were questioning lavish fees their leaders had paid to two Washington political insiders, lobbyist Jack Abramoff and public relations consultant Michael Scanlon.

Since then, the scandal surrounding Abramoff has metastasized into one of Washington’s most widespread corruption investigations, spreading to members of Congress, administration officials, lobbyists and activists. One longtime congressional observer has said the imbroglio “has the potential to be the biggest scandal in Congress in over a century.’’

Federal investigators signaled recently that their probe could implicate as many as six members of Congress and upwards of a dozen former congressional aides and lobbyists.

as in the "American Press", Lake Charles, LA, mentioned in the article.

Even in this day of all news all the time, instantly, there's some things that local print news just does well. Like highlight a local story that turns out to have national implications. This seems to be one of those instances.

(personal aside) I buy our local paper every day for a number of reasons - most local - but one of them is that it is a Knight-Ridder outlet and features KR Washington Bureau pieces 2 or 3 times a week. They add a perspective to political news that many in my conservative county may not otherwise see. I like supporting them.

associated with Abramoff! The "surfing congressman" used to be my congressman. Besides being a disgusting repig, I always suspected he was a crook. It will be so much fun to watch him go down!! Woohoo!