Former Prime Minister Mahathir Mohamad said Monday that disgraced lobbyist Jack Abramoff was paid $1.2 million to organize his 2002 meeting with President Bush, but denied the money came from the Malaysian government.
Mahathir told reporters he was aware a payment was made to Abramoff, but he didn’t know who made it. He said he had been persuaded by the U.S. think tank Heritage Foundation to meet with Bush at the time.
. . .
Mahathir said the Heritage Foundation believed he could help “influence (Bush) in some way regarding U.S. policies.”
(1) I hope a Lincoln Bedroom stay was available at that price level.
(2) Either someone has a lot of money to throw around or Abramoff could make a convincing case that he had an “in” at the White House.
(3) Why does a foreign prime minister need to hire a lobbyist, anyway?
(4) Odd that Mahathir didn’t know where the money came from in this purported transaction.
(5) Nice to see the Heritage Foundation keeping busy looking out for us, huh?