Abramoff's thumb on the postal meter

Now, I can understand the Magazine Publishers in America hiring Abramoff to help fend off a postal increase; Abramoff's ability to grease skids in the Republican Congress were obviously well known to everyone in Washington by 2000 and postal rates are the biggest single cost of magazines. But what is this all about?

The magazine association made another payment that is under scrutiny.

In 2000, the association made a $25,000 contribution to a nonprofit group called Toward Tradition, an alliance of Jews and evangelical Christians, based on what Mr. Rubenstein called a directive from Preston Gates. People involved in the investigation have said that Mr. Abramoff funneled money through Toward Tradition to the wife of his associate, Tony C. Rudy, a former top aide to Representative Tom Delay, Republican of Texas.

"They had absolutely no knowledge of how that money would be used, and if it turns out that it was used for an improper purpose, the M.P.A. would be, quite frankly, outraged," Mr. Rubenstein said.

Even if "directed" by their lobbying firm, didn't it occur to the MPA that it would be perceived as, frankly, weird, that they'd be sending 25 large to "an alliance of Jews and evangelical Christians?" I guess the war to save Christmas from the secular humanists makes for bizarre bedfellows. Or something.

Prosperity is a recurring theme in Treat's ministry, and tonight the pastor has brought in a heavy-hitting speaker to back him up, someone with Old World authority: Rabbi Daniel Lapin. The Mercer Island rabbi, who preaches conservative politics along with Judeo-Christian ethics through his syndicated radio show (based at Seattle's KTTH-AM) and his national, nonprofit group, Toward Tradition, has recently penned a book, Thou Shall Prosper: Ten Commandments for Making Money. In it, he writes that "God wants humans to be wealthy because wealth follows large-scale righteous conduct." A polished performer who sprinkles his talk with one-liners like a scholarly Borscht Belt comedian, the suited, yarmulke-wearing Lapin explains to tonight's crowd that money "is God's gift for human interaction" because acquiring it requires people "to connect with as many people as possible, to be obsessed with the needs of as many people as possible."

Can I get a "Heh, indeedy" here?