Outside Abramoff: Who Else Was Buying Congressmen

The LA Times reports today that Charles Hurwitz gave Richard Pombo and John Doolittle some major contributions in exchange for shutting down a FDIC investigation about his role in a failed savings & loan. Doolittle will probably get implicated in the Abramoff scandal as well. Now that I think about it, I'm pretty sure he was tight the the Duke too, so his ass might be on tape. Jesus, it's one thing to go around with your hand out, but I think this guy took a butterfly net with him as well.

Doolittle and Pombo sabotaged the investigation by putting sensitive documents into the congressional record thereby making them public record. They inserted so many documents into the record that they had to pay $20,000 out of their congressional accounts to cover the additional printing fees. Sorry kids, no bonuses this year, we gotta bail out a billionaire.

The FDIC's take from the Times:

The FDIC was outraged over the documents' release.

Its chief spokesman, Phil Battey, said in a statement to the Sacramento Bee at the time that the publication of the materials was a "subordination … and a seamy abuse of the legislative process."

The FDIC, which was originally seeking to recover $300 million from Hurwitz had to end up settling for $200,000.