"In three hours yesterday, [Sen. Byron] Dorgan and John McCain (R-Ariz.), chairman of the Senate Indian Affairs Committee, quizzed witnesses on what the lawmakers described as an elaborate web of fraud and greed -- 'even by Washington standards,' as Dorgan unkindly put it.

There were phony grass-roots Christian groups. Phony billing statements. Nonprofits with phony purposes. And, perhaps phoniest of all, a "premiere international think tank" called the American International Center, directed by two boyhood friends of Abramoff partner Michael Scanlon: yoga instructor Brian Mann and lifeguard-cum-excavator David Grosh. Mann refused to answer questions, but Grosh, who never consulted a lawyer, was happy to tell his story.

'I'm embarrassed and disgusted to be a part of this whole thing,' Grosh said in his two-sentence statement. 'The Lakota Indians have a word, wasichu, which aptly describes all of us right now.'"

Get the Story:
Washington Sketch by Dana Milbank: One Committee's Three Hours of Inquiry, in Surreal Time (The Washington Post 6/23)
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Witness List/Testimony:
Oversight Hearing Before the Senate Committee on Indian Affairs on the In Re Tribal Lobbying Matters, Et Al (June 22, 2005)

Relevant Links:
Mississippi Band of Choctaw Indians - http://www.choctaw.org

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