Ben Domenech, Meet Your Dad

Truly the gift that keeps on giving. Yet more on the Washington Post's sekrit plan to discredit the right by giving airtime to Ben Domenech.

Over at RedState.org, the Washington Post's Ben Domenech writes that Jack Abramoff had no influence on policy at the Interior Department:

Comments || Norton Resigns from Cabinet || RedState: Oh please. By: Augustine. That's bullcrap. Abramoff boasted of being an insider at EVERY agency, not just Interior. Because he lied to his clients, we're supposed to believe that he actually had any effect on policy? Please.

Ben, there's somebody we want you to meet. You can call him "Dad":

Talking Points Memo: by Joshua Micah Marshall: March 19, 2006 - March 25, 2006 Archives: Little did I know this Ben Domenech gambit from the Post was a secret plot to create the grist for more Abramoff blogging. You see, it turns out the Domenech family came in for a number of Bush administration appointments. Not only Ben, but Ben's dad, Doug, who was White House liaison to the Department of Interior. Or to put it more colloquially, White House guy to make sure Jack Abramoff got what he wanted with the Indians and the Pacific Island stuff.

Wayne Smith was the point man for Indian casino policy at the Department of Interior. He ended up having kind of a rough ride over at Interior. And, according to Smith, as reported last year in the Denver Post, Domenech told him "we had to pay attention to [Jack] Abramoff, because otherwise the religious right and (Ralph) Reed are going to come up and bite us, and our whole base will go crazy. They will light up our phones, shut down our phone lines."

According to Smith, Domenech was the conduit for Abramoff operative Italia Federici. Said Smith: "Doug would come down and say, 'Italia called and Jack wants this' That's how it all happened internally."

Perhaps it's from first-hand family experience that Ben writes:

Red America: On the size of government, on immigration and on issues of federal power, Republicans have adopted the same Washington strategies.... They've grown fat and happy on pork contracts, and forgotten why they were sent to this town in the first place.