Updated: Oct. 6, 7:50AM
Disgraced former lobbyist Jack Abramoff has a forthcoming memoir intended to serve as a “corrective” to his “wildly misunderstood” story. The publisher? The infamous “birther” website World Net Daily.
“Capitol Punishment: The Hard Truth About Washington from America’s Most Notorious Lobbyist” is set to be published on Nov. 1, according to WND.
Just like the millions of Americans stuck with an illegal Kenyan-born President in the White House, Jack Abramoff is the victim of a massive media conspiracy, according to WND, anyway.
Those Indian tribes he ripped off? Their “lucrative casinos were constantly under threat from proposed changes in law” and while Abramoff “charged the tribes many millions, he saved them billions by ensuring votes to support the livelihoods of their reservations,” says WND.
WND writes that much of his share “was funneled not into his own coffers, but to charities.”
The book, says WND, “reveals that the Abramoff on the front pages could not be further from the Abramoff who’s ready to tell his honest and compelling story.”
“The biggest surprise twist comes in the form of Abramoff himself, a smart, funny, charming, clear-eyed narrator who confounds every expectation of the media’s villainous portrait,” according to the book description. “He’s a perfect bundle of contradictions: an Orthodox Jew and upstanding family man with a staunch moral streak, caught in multiple scandals of bribery and corruption with an undercurrent of murder.”
TPM asked WND Editor Joseph Farah what he thought might appeal to the WND audience about the book.
“I think you have a fundamental misunderstanding about the way publishers make decisions to publish books,” Farah wrote in an email. “WND Books does not decide to publish books based on the appeal of the book to the WND audience. If we made decisions like that, we might not have the track record we have in producing so many bestsellers.”
Farah continued: “This is a book that will get an enormous amount of attention beyond WND. We found it to be a very redemptive work by a fascinating personality, not to mention very newsworthy. Why would any publisher turn it down? Isn’t that a better question? What’s in this book that represents a threat to the publishing establishment? A better question is how is it that WND Books was so fortunate to have an opportunity to publish it.”
Ryan J. Reilly
Ryan J. Reilly is a D.C.-based reporter for TPM. Prior to joining TPM, he worked for a news website covering the Justice Department and was a researcher for Bloomberg News. His email address is ryan(at)talkingpointsmemo.com.
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