Jack be nimble

The new Jack Abramoff is repentant, boastful, and challenging of Ralph Reed's forthrightness | Les Sillars

Dennis Van Tine/Abacausa.com/Newscom

Jack Abramoff's Capitol Punishment (WND Books, 2011) has as its subtitle The Hard Truth About Washington Corruption from America's Most Notorious Lobbyist.

In it "the most evil lobbyist ever" (that's from his back cover) is candid about why congressional staffers immediately returned his phone calls: He casually offered to hire them at triple their salary at a later date. He also offered golf trips, big bundled donations to legislators' campaign funds and favorite charities, and double suites at FedEx Field to watch the Redskins (some years he spent $1.5 million on event tickets).

Capitol Punishment is Abramoff's post-prison appeal for redemption, but it's also an oddly defiant and boastful confession: On his November book tour he told me he wants to undo the perception that he was a "walking Death Star" who "with a mere flick of my wallet could undo any problem in Washington," but his book describes in detail how his lobbying saved his tribal clients "hundreds of millions, if not billions, of dollars." He wants to make up for his past: He's Jewish, believes in "the Almighty," and says, "We can repent, and we can turn around, and we can try to get it right."