In Scotland, 'Abramoff' Draws Blank Stares
Roll Call Staff
ST. ANDREWS, Scotland — For all the Beltway chatter about the world’s original golf course and what may or may not have happened when Jack Abramoff flew federal officials here in 2000 and again in 2002, locals in this windswept beach town are distinctly uninterested.
Most people interviewed here have never heard of Abramoff, so they’re also unaware of the starring role their town’s big draw is playing in the scandal that’s consuming Washington, D.C., insiders.
They haven’t heard of him in the Old Tom Morris Golf Shop, which bills itself as the sport’s oldest, nor in the pubs scattered throughout this city of weathered spires and cobbled streets.
No, Abramoff — the central figure in a wide-ranging federal corruption probe, who inspired the Congressional debate on lobbying reform and haunts Republican nightmares of midsummer indictments and a November revolution — elicits only shrugs here.
“Never heard of him,” said Stevie, the bartender at a 150-year-old pub called the Jigger Inn, which backs up onto the 17th hole of the Old Course. Across town at the Central, a pub favored by caddies, one named John likewise drew a blank. “Never heard of him,” he said.
And in a potentially encouraging sign for the GOP, the hordes of American golf enthusiasts making the pilgrimage to this Mecca of the game appeared to have little knowledge of the story, either, even as it was unfolding in headlines back home.
Last Monday, former Bush administration official David Safavian was taking the stand in his own trial for the second day, trying to beat back charges that he did favors for Abramoff in return for, among other things, a lavish trip to St. Andrews in 2002.
In retrospect, trips to St. Andrews brought together most of the key characters in the affair. The 2002 trip attended by Safavian and Abramoff also included Rep. Bob Ney (R-Ohio); two of Ney’s aides, including his then-Chief of Staff Neil Volz, who has pleaded guilty in the case; and Christian Coalition leader Ralph Reed. An earlier jaunt to the course in 2000, also bankrolled by Abramoff, included then-House Majority Whip Tom DeLay (R-Texas) and his wife, Christine.
Pressed by prosecutors, Safavian acknowledged that he had given Abramoff nonpublic information in the weeks before the lobbyist whisked him off to Scotland in a private jet for a romp that prosecutors say ended up costing $130,000 for nine participants. Safavian insisted that his inaccurate recollection of the timing of those events to FBI investigators was just a memory lapse.
Stepping off the 18th green at the golf course that day, a Chicago businessman named Mike said he did recall something about Abramoff fêting officials at St. Andrews.
“Is it true?” he asked. Assured that the trip had taken place, and that it was indeed central to the scandal, Mike was unimpressed.
“It does show a lack of judgment by the Congressmen. It makes them look like they were in the lobbyist’s pocket for taking that trip.” But whatever came out in the trial “won’t besmirch the reputation of this place,” he said, casting a glance back out over the course. “It’s been here too long.”
Even a couple of Washingtonians wrapping up play on the links were still unsure about the course’s role in the Abramoff saga.
One man, who said he works for the National Association of Home Builders, looked confused when asked how it felt to play the course generating so much heat in the lobbying scandal.
“I don’t get it,” he said. “What’s the connection?”
As for the Scots, their blank stares at the mention of the scandal may be a product of limited access to news about it.
The Scotsman, the country’s national newspaper, has referenced the Abramoff affair only a few times, and then, did so in a gossip column. The paper mentioned DeLay’s trip in 2000 to note that “Tommy Boy” spent “most of his time on the links or at the 19th.”
“I’m shocked I haven’t heard of it, because I read the papers and try to watch the evening news every night,” said Philip Laurie, a veteran of the Old Course links.
Timelier scandals closer to home are commanding his, and others’, attention.
In the category of officials living too luxuriously, English Deputy Prime Minister John Prescott is trying to tamp public anger over an episode involving golf’s French cousin, croquet. Photographs of Prescott playing the lawn game at his government-bestowed country mansion have splashed across British tabloids, forcing him to give up the estate.
As for Americans misbehaving in St. Andrews, locals would rather talk about recent allegations that actor Kevin Costner acted inappropriately during a massage at the spa in the Old Course Hotel.
In fact, informed of the Abramoff scandal, the Scots have a hard time understanding why American politicians would choose to make golf the centerpiece of any deluxe vacation. Around here, the sport has a blue-collar tint; it’s been a favorite of the working classes since its emergence 500 years ago. St. Andrews’ courses are public, with heavy discounts for locals.
And whereas American golf still evokes images of retired snowbirds playing leisurely rounds larded with mulligans, Scots play a nearly aerobic version of the game. They play briskly, with short, compact swings to keep their shots below the notorious Scottish wind. And mulligans are a no-no.
The Old Course itself is no holiday. Compared to the lush country club courses most Americans are used to, the course more closely resembles a battlefield. Gnarled fairways, the color of gunmetal, are littered with treacherous pot bunkers. Besides the wind, players have to contend with blind tee shots, thickets of scrubby yellow-flower bushes called gorse, and deep heather.
The 17th hole, the “Road Hole,” is considered the hardest in professional golf. Some have called it a graveyard — hardly a place to unwind.
“We have the same scandals,” said Neil Paton, the head professional in the town’s only certified pro shop, “except our politicians go the beach in Spain or Italy.”
Potts: Congress Must Not Allow Lobbying Efforts to Block Pro-Consumer Financial Planning Bill
March 18, 12:35 p.m.
Quietly hidden amid debates over which agency should house a consumer financial protection agency is a simple consumer financial protection proposal. It would safeguard Main Street residents from malpractice by people claiming to be financial planners. Read Full Article
Roll Call Video Channels
