In an exclusive interview with Vanity Fair (to be published next week) ex-lobbyist and Republican heavyweight Jack Abramoff dishes on his GOP friends who have “airbrushed” him out of the Congress, the Party, and the White House. GOP Party chairman Ken Mehlmen, “exchanged e-mail with Abramoff, did him political favors (such as blocking Clinton administration alumnus Allen Stayman from keeping a State Department job), had Sabbath dinner at his house, and offered to pick up his tab at Signatures.” Karl Rove sat next to Abramoff for the NCAA Tournament games at the MCI Center and House Majority Leader John Boehner was a regular at Abramoff’s restaurant Signatures. Jack Abramoff on Newt Gingrich: “I have more pictures of him than I have of my wife!” President Bush once asked Abramoff, “What are you benching, buff guy?” Conrad Burns, “Every appropriation we wanted [from Burns’s committee] we got. … Our staffs were as close as they could be. They practically used Signatures as their cafeteria. I mean, it’s a little difficult for him to run from that record.”

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