What Do You Suppose Jack Abramoff Gave Roy Blunt For A Wedding Gift?

I wonder what Jack Abramoff and the rest of the Team Abramoff lobbyists got Roy Blunt for a wedding present? Don't you? You can bet they all had front row seats.

But we'll never know because Roy Blunt sought two separate waivers from the House  Committee on Standards of Official Conduct to prevent the public from finding out what Casino Jack gave him for his wedding.

For all we know, it could have been cash. Or maybe it was an all expense paid trip to visit Jack's clients in the Marianas Islands, or a trip to Turkey, so that Roy could trade stories with all his staffers who took trips there.

Larry Noble, the executive director of a major ethics watchdog group had this to say to the Post-Dispatch for a story they did on this topic:

Larry Noble, executive director of the Center for Responsive Politics, a campaign finance watchdog group in Washington, said a lack of disclosure is an issue for concern.

"Obviously, a wedding's a personal thing, but also it's an avenue by which people can make very large gifts to the person for political reasons to curry political favor," Noble said. "And you don't want it to become basically an underground conduit for giving large gifts to an office-holder. The ( $285) threshold covers an awful lot, but I'd be worried about things like the checks to help pay for the honeymoon. But we don't know about that, because it's not disclosed."

At the time it seemed odd that Roy would go to so much trouble just to prevent the public from knowing what folks gave he and his tobacco lobbyist bride for their wedding. But now it all becomes clear.

He was worried about being embarassed by both what folks gave him, and by who was doing the giving.

Even a man of questionable ethics like Senator Kit Bond didn't go this far. When he got remarried to one of the ringleaders of Senator Bill Frist's charity scam, he disclosed his wedding gifts.