For Ex-Lobbyist Abramoff, a Multimedia Effort at Redemption

[alp227]

High over Central Park, in a private screening room on the 51st floor of the Time Warner Center last Sunday night, Jack Abramoff, the onetime supervillain of lobbying, had an unusual coming out.

Mr. Abramoff had come to Manhattan to roll out his rehabilitative media campaign, and with a dozen friends and colleagues — among them his lawyer; his publicist; his literary agent; and the evening’s host, a wealthy Israeli equities investor — he now sat to watch himself on “60 Minutes,” his debut interview since getting out of prison last December. There was popcorn, potato chips and seltzer; a kosher sushi dinner waited in the main room. The television, 60 inches wide, was mounted on the wall in movie-theater style.

It was an extraordinary backdrop for a man on the eve of re-emergence from one of the most spectacular scandals in recent political history; but then, Mr. Abramoff is an extraordinary man. At 53, he is unemployed, insolvent and trying — as you may know from his numerous appearances last week — to redeem and rebrand himself.

What you may not know is that Jack Abramoff, being Jack Abramoff — which is to say, a genetically energetic operator — is also working on a few small personal projects on the side.

full: http://www.nytimes.com/2011/11/13/us/jack-abramoff-making-a-multimedia-effort-at-redemption.html?pagewanted=all

[MADem]

1. The guy sickens me--the way he ripped off all those tribes, bought favor,

bribed, dragged Congresscritters on boondoggles...he should be ashamed. Instead, he's pitching a .... reality show?

Good grief.

What he really needs — and quickly — is a paycheck. He owes more than $40 million to the Indian tribes he was convicted of bilking as a lobbyist (he disputes this bilking), and his bank account dwindled in prison. His first job coming out was an $8-an-hour position as an accountant at a kosher pizzeria. The job before that, as a clerk in the chaplain’s office in prison, paid him at the hourly rate of 12 cents.

Which is why he was hitting the media hustings hard last week, making mea culpas and offering his inside take on Washington — while simultaneously setting up meetings with network executives about his planned reality TV show. This conflation of public service and private business is classic Abramoff, and it reflects his latest and most personal lobbying effort yet: the one in which he lobbies for himself.