Superior preparation and unbounded aggression made Jack Abramoff into one of Washington’s sharpest lobbyists. His win-at-all-costs philosophy led his boss to level a stiff warning that if he kept it up, he would end up either dead, disgraced, or in jail. Abramoff suffered both disgrace and the purgatory of jail. Back home in Silver Springs, Maryland, after almost four years in jail, Abramoff told Mishpacha how he worked to uproot the corruption from his own heart and how Washington needs to do the same.
Listening to Jack Abramoff speak you can still hear the force and authority in his voice and sense the determination and intestinal fortitude that he plied to open doors in Congress closing them only when he emerged with his client holding the winning hand.
These days he employs that same fighting spirit when offering ideas to reform Washington DC where lobbyists outnumber members of Congress and their staffs by two-to-one.
A day before we spoke Abramoff had addressed the annual conference of Kentucky’s legislative ethics commission where attendance is mandatory for all state legislators.
Abramoff chuckled heartily when I asked if “legislative ethics” was an oxymoron.
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