Picture This

Time has just published a photo showing Abramoff and Bush (sort of) together at a 2001 meeting at the White House. I’ll be the first to admit that this picture isn’t the smoking gun linking Abramoff to Bush. Still, Bush’s never-knew-him defense is questionable in light of reports like this:

The Bush Administration again faced questions about those ties after an e-mail Abramoff sent a journalist friend surfaced last week in which Abramoff wrote that he had met President Bush almost a dozen times over the past five years, and even received an invitation to the President's Crawford, Texas, ranch along with other large political donors. Bush "has one of the best memories of any politician I have ever met," Abramoff mused in the e-mail last month, adding that, He "saw me in almost a dozen settings, and joked with me about a bunch of things, including details of my kids."

--MM