Bush & Abramoff, and gee we have a shitty mass media

Buried in the news is this from the Associated Press:

The Bush administration's former chief procurement official tipped off lobbyist Jack Abramoff that the government was about to suspend the federal contracts of an Abramoff client, newly filed court papers say...

Acting on the information that Abramoff provided the company in November 2003, Tyco lawyer Timothy Flanigan, a former assistant attorney general in the Bush administration, contacted the general counsel to the GSA and asked for an opportunity to address the suspension.

The company revealed Flanigan's role in a statement.

In October, Flanigan withdrew his nomination to be Bush's deputy attorney general. His confirmation was delayed due to questions about his dealings with Abramoff when Abramoff was a Tyco lobbyist.

The government had planned to suspend Tyco because of alleged criminal conduct by former Tyco executives.

After advising Abramoff about the internal deliberations at GSA, Safavian suggested to Abramoff what arguments Tyco should make when it appealed the suspension decision, the court papers in Safavian's federal court case say.

Once tipped off by Abramoff, Tyco hired an outside law firm and successfully petitioned the government to lift the suspension and allow Tyco to continue to perform on government contracts.

And yet Bush won't release information regarding his contacts with Abramoff, or those of his White House staff.

One also wonders how those Abramoff prosecutors keep getting promoted off the case too.


UPDATE:

Krugman states the facts on Abramoff today, just in case you feel the need to browbeat Deborah Howell, Katie Couric and Tim Russert some more.

Martin Garbus lays into the Bush/Abramoff prosecutor promotion as well.