Confirms Talks Lobbyist With Reid's Office

From: dailykos.com
They just won't give up.
Today we have Confirms Talks Lobbyist With Reid's Office. And what does that lobbyist say?

Ronald Platt, a lobbyist who worked with Abramoff at the Greenberg Traurig firm between 2001 and 2004, said he contacted Reid's office in 2001, as the billing records show, about the timing of minimum wage legislation affecting one of Abramoff's clients, the Northern Mariana Islands.
"When Abramoff first arrived at Greenberg Traurig, I did a new colleague a favor by simply asking Reid staffers about when the minimum wage legislation affecting the Mariana Islands would be voted upon by the Senate. I communicated this to Abramoff," Platt said in a statement e-mailed Friday evening to The Associated Press.
...
In his statement, Platt sought to minimize the extent of his lobbying of Reid's office on behalf of Abramoff, saying he never considered himself "part of Team Abramoff." Abramoff has pleaded guilty in a fraud and bribery case.
"These contacts were incidental, insofar as I simply bumped into Reid staffers at Democratic Party functions or occurred incidental to discussions regarding my clients, not Abramoff's," Platt said. "Any contacts that I may have had in regard to Abramoff's tribal clients would have been similarly incidental."
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Platt acknowledged he input his own time entries into his firm's billing system and that "any time billed to the Northern Marianas was to simply monitor the progress of the legislation." He said any help he provided with Abramoff's client ended in late 2001.
As AP continues to obsess on tying Reid to Abramoff on the Marianas minimum wage issue, they continue to leave out the key part of the story. So let's spell it out for them, again.
Abramoff was lobbying against legislation sponsored by Senator Kennedy seeking to increase the minimum wage in the Marianas Islands.
Senator Reid supported Kennedy's legislation. He was a cosponsor of it, and spoke in favor of the legislation on the Senate floor. Senator Reid was not asked to intervene to block the legislation.
Conclusion, by any reasonable person, there was no quid pro quo by Reid on this issue. But has AP contacted Senator Reid's office to find out his position on this legislation? Have they looked at his floor statements on it, easily available in the Congressional Record? If they have, they're leaving that key information out.
Is this hard to understand? When investigating an influence peddling and bribery scandal, it's kind of critical to actually look at the results of those efforts. You might have quid, but in this case no quo.
Meanwhile, three more members of Congress have been linked to Abramoff. And guess what? They are all Republicans.
Update [2006-2-11 13:50:11 by mcjoan]:: I mistakenly left out the best little snarky goodness by AP's crack reporters.
In his statement, Platt sought to minimize the extent of his lobbying of Reid's office on behalf of Abramoff, saying he never considered himself "part of Team Abramoff." Abramoff has pleaded guilty in a fraud and bribery case.
Maybe he was actually seeking to set the record straight? Because maybe his lobbying of Reid's office was actually minimal?
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