A Notorious Lobbyist Is Sentenced

President Bush and Vice President Cheney weren't the only well-known Republicans absent from the party's quadrennial convention in St. Paul this week. Jack Abramoff was missing, too.

Abramoff was busy in federal court in Washington today, being sentenced to four years in prison for conspiracy, mail fraud and tax evasion. He had pleaded guilty to those crimes in relation to his lobbying activities on behalf of Indian casino interests.

Under federal sentencing guidelines, District Judge Ellen Huvelle could have sentenced Abamoff to 11 years behind bars. Prosecutors had asked her to show leniency because he's helping them investigate Congress members who accepted vacations and other gratuities from lobbyists without publicly disclosing them.

The Abramoff investigation has already led to the convictions of two Republican congressmen -- Randy "Duke" Cunningham of California and Bob Ney of Ohio -- as well as two Bush White House officials, J. Steven Griles and David Safavian. Other lobbyists and congressional aides also have been convicted in the case.

Abramoff is already in prison, serving six years in an unrelated case involving the fraudulent purchase of a cruise ship casino in Florida. Today's sentence will be served concurrently, and he is likely to be released when his original sentence ends in 2012.

Although Abramoff has been in custody since 2005, his sentencing could cast a shadow on this year's presidential race. An Abramoff associate, Ralph Reed, organized an event last month that raised $1.75 million for Republican nominee John McCain.

[Recent analyses show just how effective lobbyists can be in Washington.]

by Mark Stein