Last week after the Abramoff story exploded, the White House went into a
defensive mode:

On Wednesday, McClellan called Abramoff’s actions “outrageous” and
reiterated to reporters that Bush was not friends with the lobbyist and does
not recall ever meeting him—though he said it was possible that Bush met
Abramoff at a fund-raising function or at a White House holiday party.
(According to McClellan, Abramoff was a guest at three White House Chanukah
receptions.) When asked about Abramoff’s contacts with other White House
officials, McClellan said, “I don’t keep track of staff.”

View complete article
here.

Now here is what

USA Today is reporting this morning

WASHINGTON (AP) — In President Bush’s first 10 months, GOP fundraiser
Jack Abramoff and his lobbying team logged nearly 200 contacts with the new
administration as they pressed for friendly hires at federal agencies and
sought to keep the Northern Mariana Islands exempt from the minimum wage and
other laws, records show.

The meetings between Abramoff’s lobbying team and the administration
ranged from Attorney General John Ashcroft to policy advisers in Vice
President Dick Cheney’s office, according to his lobbying firm billing
records.

View complete article

here.

Things sure have changed in under a week. Of course McClellan will most
certainly change his argument to “Well the President didn’t meet face to face
with Abramoff” or “This is a serious investigation and we are not going to
comment on it”. True there are other ways to get to the President than in a face
to face meeting with him.

Well this is only the first 10 months of the administration. I wonder how
many more visits were logged after that.