"... never heard of him"

The Washington Post: Jack Who?

IT'S NOT, as photos for a superlobbyist's power wall go, a terribly impressive shot: President Bush, his back to the camera, shaking the hand of Raul Garza, chief of the Kickapoo tribe of Texas. In the foreground, Karl Rove, smiling at a 2001 White House meeting to promote the president's tax cuts. And there at the back of the room, only his slightly blurry head visible, the chief's lobbyist: Jack Abramoff. Which, of course -- along with the refusal of the Bush administration to release information about what Mr. Abramoff was doing at the White House, how often he was there and with whom -- is what makes the picture a big deal.

Kim Eisler of Washingtonian magazine has reported that the disgraced lobbyist met with Mr. Bush almost a dozen times over the past five years and was invited to the president's ranch in Crawford, Tex., in 2003. According to Mr. Abramoff, who raised at least $100,000 for Mr. Bush's reelection, the president was once well acquainted enough with the lobbyist (or at least well briefed enough) to inquire about his twins. But now, as in the photo, Mr. Abramoff somehow has gone blurry in Mr. Bush's memory. The president doesn't recall meeting or posing for pictures with him.

Mr. Rove's memory is fuzzy, too, as luck would have it. His name, according to the Associated Press, was rather routinely dropped by Mr. Abramoff as his big White House contact. Mr. Abramoff's former assistant, Susan Ralston, went to the White House to work for Mr. Rove, and, the Associated Press reported yesterday, Mr. Rove's office helped set up a 2002 meeting between Mr. Bush and the prime minister of Malaysia, another Abramoff client. One Abramoff business associate reported being in the lobbyist's office when Mr. Rove's office called to confirm the meeting.

All of this recalls the question we've been asking for a few weeks now: Why doesn't the White House just release information about Mr. Abramoff's meetings and other visits there? This is a man who has pleaded guilty to trying to bribe public officials. The White House says he turned up for a "few staff level meetings" and two Hanukkah parties. Whom did he meet? About what?

Sensible members of Mr. Bush's own party agree. "I'm one who believes that more is better, in terms of disclosure and transparency," Sen. John Thune (R-S.D.) said on "Fox News Sunday." "And so I'd be a big advocate for making records that are out there available." Mr. Bush, said Rep. Mike Pence (R-Ind.), "is a man of unimpeachable integrity. The American people have profound confidence in him. And as Abraham Lincoln said, 'Give the people the facts and republican governance perhaps will be saved.' " Sen. Chuck Hagel (R-Neb.), speaking on ABC's "This Week," was even blunter. "Get it out. Get it out," Mr. Hagel said. "I mean, disclosure is the real issue. Whether it's campaign finance issues, whether it's ethics issues, whether it's lobbying issues, disclosure is the best and most effective way to deal with all of these things."

Elementary, you would think. But not for this White House.