digital age 1; 1984 0

Do you see what I see: President Bush shaking hands in 2001 with Chief Raul Garza of the Kickapoo tribe of Texas. In the background at left is the lobbyist Jack Abramoff; Karl Rove, the president's top adviser, is at the right.

Well, the White House has withheld all photos that include both President Bush and Influence Peddler-in-Chief Jack Abramhoff, and a Florida photo archive has scrubbed all of its files that included events where Bush and Jack-off were seen together (the archive was run by a big Bush campaign contributor), but all that work still leaves Abramoff’s clients with copies of their treasured keepsakes.

The Chief of the Texas Kickapoo Indians, currently under federal indictment for embezzling tribal funds, made this photo available to the New York Times to prove, he said, that he has nothing to hide (though he did stipulate that the photo could only be reproduced in black and white—score one for old-school aesthetics. . . or vanity). I’m guessing the Chief went to the Feds first, in an attempt to cut a deal, and when they said no dice, he got all vengeful n’ shit, but that’s just speculation on my part.

But perhaps the most interesting angle on the story is (of course) the reaction of White House Press Secretary Scott McClellan, who said that Abramhoff doesn’t appear on the log for the May 2001 event celebrating the passage of Bush’s tax cuts, and that he can’t explain how Abramhoff got into the White House for the gathering.

What are we to assume from that? Was White House security so lax that any guy in a suit and tie could wander into grip-and-grin? Or, was Jack Abramoff such a regular sight at the White House that he could slip in and out without going through the official rigmarole. Or, just maybe, the White House logs have been scrubbed, too. . . . I guess 1984 gets a conditional point, afterall.