Republican media consultant and Abramoff friend Monty Warner recently
wrote a letter to the editor of Montana's Whitefish Pilot, to "set the record straight so the people of Montana know the truth":
Mr. Burns' staff--and perhaps Mr. Burns--were known to eat free sushi/meals often at Mr. Abramoff's DC restraurant, Signatures, and the joke was if they didn't, they would have starved to death.
Frankly, it was widely viewed in DC that Mr. Abramoff effectively exerted implicit control over Mr. Burns whenever he and his team needed to get something accomplished.
Warner concluded:
I am a lifelong Republican, but that is one GOP seat I would be happy to lose.
According to the
Helena Independent Record, Warner also noted:
The Abramoff staff had certain targets and certain people that they worked with and Burns' staff was one that was readily available....I understand [Burns] is in a campaign and I am a Republican, but the nastiness and the manner in which he's gone about trashing my friend is repugnant. I could care less if [Burns] gets elected or not.
Last December, Burns
told a local TV station that he wished that Abramoff had never been born.
Months later in an interview with Vanity Fair, Abramoff responded:
"Every appropriation we wanted [from Burns's committee] we got," he says. "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." As for Burns's wishing he'd never been born, Abramoff remarks, "That's quite a statement, coming from a pro-life Republican."
The Montana Standard also
quotes Warner:
"To sit there and rewrite the entire context of what occurred," Warren [sic] said. "How is it that you received the money you received and the favors you received? He's just not being honest."
Over the years, Sen. Burns took $150,000 in campaign contributions from Jack Abramoff and his associates / clients. A post on
TPM Cafe last week reported a rumor that pending indictments of Senator Burns and Representative John Doolittle (R-CA) are being held until after the elections.
Abramoff again from his interview with Vanity Fair:
"Any important Republican who comes out and says they didn't know me is almost certainly lying....This is not an age when you can run away from facts," he declares. "I had to deal with my records, and others will have to deal with theirs."
I couldn't agree more. No wonder Burns wishes Abramoff was never born.