From CJR Daily, pointing out that Jack Abramoff was doing more than spinning a dreidel at the White House:

Yet the press has been largely silent about all this.

The only stories we could find from this week were one Knight-Ridder article, a USA Today piece, and something in the Atlanta Journal Constitution. With the exception of USA Today, none of the national papers picked up the scent.

And it’s hard to read these scattered few articles without concluding that this stonewalling points to some kind of secret. For one thing, Abramoff and Karl Rove are old friends from their days heading the College Republicans. Then there’s this buried bit in the Knight Ridder piece: According to the AP, “Abramoff and his associates had nearly 200 contacts with the White House during Bush’s first 10 months in office.” (Emphasis added.) That’s a lot of contacts, and the number alone suggests that something more was discussed than just keeping that menorah polished for Hanukkah.

Democratic congressional leaders stated in a letter this week to President Bush that the disgraced lobbyist “may have had undue and improper influence within your administration.” And a more non-partisan source, Massie Ritsch, a spokesman for nonprofit research group the Center for Responsive Politics, speaking to the White House through Knight Ridder, suggested this novel approach: “Answer the question and put the questions to rest.”

The fact that Ritsch even needed to weigh in speaks as much to the press’s silence on this matter as it does to the administration’s silence. Before the White House can be embarrassed enough to answer the question, someone has to first ask it.