Mr. Abramoff, Did You Just Fart?

Because I sure smell something stinky.

The New York Times reports on an attempt by Abramoff to get $9 million from the West African country of Gabon in exchange for, in part, a meeting with President Bush. And - lo and behold - Abramoff's front company GrassRoots (at least, he's got a sense of humor) received large sums of money and, despite an atrocious human rights record, Gabon's President, Mr. Bongo (I shit you not, that's his name) did get a meeting with Bush.

While denying any involvement of Mr. Abramoff, White House officials hillariously describe the meeting "as routine." (To be fair, its not clear from the article whether these are the words of the officials themselves or just a bit of delicious paraphrasing from the reporter).