Today's Helena Independent Record reports that in the weeks prior to his decision to reverse his position on issues impacting the CNMI, Burns met with officials who had ties to Abramoff's longtime patrons, Tan Holdings.

Sen. Conrad Burns, R-Mont., met with the sister-in-law of a Marianas man and client of confessed criminal Jack Abramoff in the weeks before Burns received a $5,000 donation from the man and reversed his position on a bill Abramoff opposed, a newspaper has reported.

This story from The Hill is just mindboggling.  In December 2003, Jack Abramoff, along with some fellow lobbyists and a handful of members of Congress threw a baby shower for Rep. Dana Rohrabacher.

And what did guests contribute?  Cash, to a fund supposedly set up to pay for nanny services.

The lobbyist, who had been friends with Rohrabacher since the early 1980s when the future lawmaker was a White House speechwriter and Abramoff was chairman of the College Republicans, allowed the couple to use his restaurant, Signatures, between lunch and dinner for the shower. Only hors d’oeuvres were served, Rohrabacher disclosed in a Los Angeles Times article two weeks ago.

Howard Hills, the California attorney who assisted Abramoff by appearing as the front man on a contract with the Superior Court of Guam in 2001 and 2002 now wants to assure us that Abramoff wasn't in on every deal of his.

In today's Pacific Magazine, Hills fills us in that Abramoff was not involved in his work for  Rongelap Atoll.

But he goes a little far in his denial:

The lawyer reiterated that it is impossible for him to involve Abramoff with his Rongelap representation since they were never associates and he never had any business deals with the lobbyist.

Texas Prosecutor Ronnie Earle issued more subpoenas yesterday in his ongoing investigation of Rep. Tom DeLay's 2002 campaign finance activities.

From AP: 

The Texas prosecutor targeting Rep. Tom DeLay has issued a second round of subpoenas to businessmen here seeking records surrounding donations to the former Republican leader and disgraced former Rep. Randy "Duke" Cunningham.

The subpoenas issued by Travis County District Attorney Ronnie Earle's office zero in on transactions in 2002 involving PerfectWave Technologies LLC, a company controlled by Brent Wilkes, a businessman with ties to DeLay and Cunningham.

The Dallas Morning News has a fascinating story about two lobbyists, Roy Coffee and David DiStefano, who have close ties to Rep. Bob Ney and to an attempt by a foreign company to circumvent Iranian sanctions.

The two men, Roy Coffee and David DiStefano, have been connected to a foreign company's attempt to work around U.S. sanctions against Iran and sell airplane parts to that nation – an attempt that centered on U.S. Rep. Bob Ney, an Ohio Republican accused in lobbyist Jack Abramoff's recent plea agreement of accepting bribes.

Below is a story from El Nueva Dia. 

In it, as best I can tell, Cassidy & Associates bigshot, Juan Carlos Benitez, denies ever having had any sort of working relationship with either Jack Abramoff or Howard Hills.  This is despite the fact that both Benitez and Abramoff were registered to lobby on the same legislation in 1998 on behalf of Puerto Rican statehood, and that Benitez was the official lobbyist for Puerto Rico at a time when Abramoff was a well-paid outside lobbyist for the same issues.

Today's NY Sun reports that House insurgents are pressing to oust then entire GOP House leadership.

The shake-up from the scandal over lobbyist Jack Abramoff may extend far beyond the resigned majority leader, Tom DeLay, with an influential faction of congressional Republicans calling for the party's entire House leadership slate to face an election that would prompt a "self-examination."

Behind the effort to force new elections is Rep. John Sweeney, a Republican of New York, who first issued his call for mid-Congress votes on all House leaders last week. Since then, Mr. Sweeney, who represents the Saratoga area, and a California colleague, Rep. Dan Lungren, have been working the phones to drum up support for the measure among fellow Republicans.

Rep. John Doolittle is up to his neck in the Abramoff scandal, but thus far, he has had very little to say about that.

But today, on KFBK, Rep. Doolittle will break his silence.

According to the SacBee:

Rep. John Doolittle, heretofore publicly mum on the corruption scandal surrounding his friend, the disgraced lobbyist Jack Abramoff, has finally told his side of the story.

It came in an interview last Thursday with investment analyst and conservative talk radio host Tom Sullivan and is scheduled to run today at 2 p.m. on KFBK 1530. Sullivan told his listeners Friday that he gave Doolittle the opportunity to kill the interview if it made the congressman "uncomfortable."

Doolittle, meanwhile, told local reporters Thursday night outside the Zinfandel Grille in Rocklin that "we welcome the investigation" into Abramoff's dealings. Only "anyone who's done wrong" has anything to fear from the probe, the Roseville Republican said, on his way into a meeting with Republican activists in his district. Tune into Sullivan, Doolittle said, to hear anything else he's got to say about Abramoff.

It seems that Rep. John Boehner forgot to add one key name to his list of supporters recently, Rep. Bob Ney.

The Cincinnati Enquirer reports:

In case anyone is wondering, U.S. Rep. Bob Ney, who has been accused by former lobbyist Jack Abramoff of accepting free trips, meals and gifts in exchange for official favors, is backing fellow Ohio Rep. John Boehner for House majority leader.

Boehner, R-West Chester, is in a close race with Rep. Roy Blunt of Missouri to replace former majority leader Tom DeLay of Texas, so he'll need every vote he can get.

If you had any doubt whether the coziness with K-Street was just limited to the House side of Capitol Hill, you need look no further than the campaigns of Senator Jim Talent, Senator Conrad Burns and Lt. Governor Michael Steele.

Talent and Burns are both in fight-for-their-lives re-elections bids.  Steele is the GOP darling in the open-Maryland seat.

And who have they turned to for help in their time of need?  K-Street. 

The Chairman of Senator Conrad Burns campaign is none other than,  Mark Baker, a telecommunications lobbyist.