Demagogue

Michael Crowley wrote an excellent profile piece in the Sunday New York Times about Tom DeLay-confidante Jack Abramoff.

As Crowley noted, the Indian tribes that Abramoff variously dissed as "morons" ... "the stupidest idiots in the land" ... "mofos" ... "troglodytes" ... "plain stupid"... and "those monkeys" reportedly paid Abramoff and his partner, Michael Scanlon, $66 million over a three-year period.

Crowley added:

Nearly as shocking as the sums (earned by Abramoff and Scanlon) was the coarseness of the e-mail messages, especially given that Abramoff was a devout Orthodox Jew who presented himself publicly as a man of conservative values.

Interestingly, as Crowley explained, the lawyer whom Abramoff is relying on to help him escape criminal charges is, in turn, relying on Abramoff for something:

When I arrived (at Abbe Lowell's law offices), Abramoff was tapping at a laptop computer, trying to find a synagogue for Lowell, who would be traveling to Mississippi for another client. ''There's a conservative synagogue in Biloxi!'' Abramoff exclaimed merrily. Lowell said, ''Jack's my spiritual adviser.''

It is a very warped world in which a Jack Abramoff can be viewed as a 21st century Lao Tzu.