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Convicted Superlobbyist Jack Abramoff Hangs Up Mid-Interview, Rather than Apologizing to Native American Leader

Jack Abramoff’s rehabilitation media tour hit the rocks today, as he abruptly hung up and ended the interview rather than talk with Tom Rodgers of the Blackfoot Nation.

Your humble host was pretty straight with Abramoff, telling him we’d been talking about him for years, and asking direct questions about Abramoff’s involvement with the apartheid South African Government through the International Freedom Foundation (his spin, in italics: he helped free Nelson Mandela), which was not mentioned at all in his book, Capitol Punishment; his central role in Tom DeLay’s “K Street Project”(he knew about it, wasn’t involved much); his amnesia about Karl Rove’s efforts to imprison Alabama Gov. Don Siegelman (Abramoff spent $20 million to defeat Siegelman and state gambling projects, but did not ask his former associate Susan Ralston, then Rove’s assistant, for any help); the SunCruz deal and his partner Adam Kidan’s mafia background (he didn’t know about the mafia links, doesn’t know who killed Gus Boulis) and then I brought on Tom Rodgers, an activist and member of the Blackfoot Nation who helped expose Abramoff’s double dealing with Indian tribes starting in 2003.  As Rodgers was asking his first question, Abramoff hung up without comment.

So Rodgers and I continued without him, and offered some context to the comments Abramoff made.

My thanks for reseach support to Alabama blogger Roger Shuler and California blogger Steve Pizzo.