Wampum

Yesterday, I posted three questions:

Without using Google (or any other search engine, etc.) can you recall 1) the event which first shone a spotlight on Abramoff, and 2) which public figure first called for an official investigation?

For extra credit, can you name the non-Indians who have been subpoenaed thus far to testify in front of Congress on the Abramoff scandal?

If my readers are like me just a few days back, you aren't able to answer those questions off the top of your head. I blame my ignorance on being slightly busy running for the Maine Legislature back in Winter/Spring of 2004. Most other Progressives were most likely occupied with the race for the Democratic nomination.

But my speculative post of last weekend put a bee in my bonnet, and so I started looking into the actual timeline of the Abramoff scandal - not of what Abramoff and Company were up to prior to 2004, but the hows, whens and whys of the reporting of the scandal.

I was somewhat surprised to learn that the Washington Post story of February 22, 2004, the one which led Senator McCain to announce his intention to hold Senate hearings (and the subsequent sudden retirement of Ben Nighthorse Campbell the following week) was in fact the first pulled from the bottom of the Abramoff House of Cards.

On the third question, the names of the non-Indians (or their representatives) "invited" (subpeonaed) to testify in the Senate Indian Affairs hearings on the Abramoff-Scanlon bilking of tribes, here's the list:

Wednesday, September 29, 2004
Jack Abramoff
Michael Scanlon

Wednesday, November 17, 2004
Michael Scanlon

Wednesday, June 22, 2005
Kevin Ring - Greenberg Traurig - Former Abramoff associate
Shawn Vassell - Greenberg Traurig
Amy Ridenour - President, National Center for Public Policy Research
Gail Halpern - Abramoff's Former Tax Advisor
Brian Mann - Former Director, American International Center
David Grosh - Former Director, American International Center
Aaron Stetter - Former Scanlon associate, Capitol Campaign Strategies

Wednesday, November 2, 2005
Fred Baggett - Managing Shareholder; Chair, National Governmental Affairs Practice, Greenberg Traurig
B.R. McConnen - President, Democracy Data & Communications
Christopher Cathcart - Former Associate, Capitol Campaign Strategies
Gail Halpern - Abramoff's Former Tax Advisor
J. Steven Griles - Former Deputy Secretary of the Interior, U.S. Department of the Interior
Michael Rosetti, Esq. - Former Counsel to the Secretary of the Interior, U.S. Department of the Interior

Thursday, November 17, 2005
Italia Federici - President, Council of Republicans for Environmental Advocacy

As a follow-up question, which two Republican players, implicated in many Abramoff emails, are missing from the witness lists above?