Jan 06, 2006 4:32 PM

The Abramoff/Bush Connection

President Bush is donating $6,000 in tainted Abramoff donations to charity. But how much cash did the Don of K-Street raise for the president? As he bragged to the New York Times back in July of '03: "So far I’ve raised about $120,000, and I haven't even really started making calls."

The total cash raised hasn't been disclosed by the White House. But this USA Today story from last May suggest that Abramoff had already bought his firm wide access to the White House.

Bush and Abramoff's contacts date back to at least 1997, when then Governor Bush wrote a letter at Abramoff's behest supporting education reforms on the Mariana Islands, an Abramoff client.

During Bush's first 10 months in office, Abramoff's firm logged 195 lobbying contacts with the administration on Marianas issues alone. Specifically, Abramoff & Co. sought to preserve the American territorial islands -- notorious for their "Made in the USA" sweatshops -- as exempt from federal minimum wage standards.

The USA Today story suggests the firm got very cozy with the administration indeed, even securing a post for one of Abramoff's firm members, Patrick Pizzella, as an assistant secretary at the Department of Labor. Needless to say: The collective effort stalled a 2001 proposal to bring the minimum wage the islands.

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