Abramoff amnesia

Nobody knows you, Jack, when you're down and out.

"What are you [weight]lifting, buff guy?" Abramoff remembers Bush asking him during one of their several meetings that Bush and his spokesmen say they don't recall.

A Vanity Fair article about Abramoff's meteoric rise and fall cites an e-mail in which Abramoff writes of Bush: "He has one of the best memories of any politician I have ever met. Perhaps he has forgotten everything."

The story also details what appear to be substantial ties among Abramoff, Bush political guru Karl Rove and Republican National Committee chief Ken Mehlman.

"Almost any important Republican who ... says they didn't know me is almost certainly lying," Abramoff told the magazine.

Abramoff, who awaits sentencing in federal court on conspiracy, mail fraud and tax evasion charges, has become a pariah in Republican circles, shunned by the party's movers and shakers who once flocked to his restaurant and vied for his favors.

"For a guy who did all these evil things ... it's pretty amazing, considering I didn't know anyone," Abramoff said.

"You're really nobody in this town unless you haven't met me," he sardonically added.

I gotta give it to him, that's a pretty funny line.