WASHINGTON - When Rep. John Doolittle praised a "great American success story" on Sept. 16, 1998, it was one of the earliest signs that he shared interests with Jack Abramoff and Rep. Tom DeLay.
"One tribe that has been a national leader in exercising its self-determination to build a strong tribal government and reservation-based economy is the Mississippi Band of Choctaw Indians," the Roseville Republican said in a five-paragraph statement he entered in the Congressional Record. The Bee found the statement after conducting a review of his public remarks.
The same week, a handful of other lawmakers also commended the tribe. DeLay, a Texas Republican who recently resigned as House majority leader after his indictment on campaign finance charges, saluted the tribe's "true economic success story."
The Choctaws have since become widely known in Washington as one of Abramoff's longest and most lucrative clients, and whose members would conclude he betrayed them for his own enrichment in the years since they first signed with him in 1995.
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