Studying the Republican Party is like playing Six Degress of Kevin Bacon. You keep coming back to the same people.

Take Jack Abramoff and Grover Norquist, for example.

About once a month since 2001, Grover Norquist has invited a top Bush administration official or a Republican congressional leader to dine with him and some 20 or 30 corporate lobbyists who help subsidize Americans for Tax Reform, the anti-tax group that Norquist heads.

The dinners at Norquist's Washington, D.C., home aren't cheap: The lobbyists pay ATR between $10,000 and $25,000 a year for the privilege of attending several of the intimate get-togethers, which have featured the likes of White House political guru Karl Rove and Labor Secretary Elaine Chao, according to several lobbyists who have attended...

From time to time over the years, the K Street crowd has been joined at the dinners by other ATR supporters, including the leaders of some casino-owning Indian tribes who were top clients of one of Norquist's oldest friends, former lobbyist Jack Abramoff.

Representatives of the Saginaw Chippewas of Michigan, the Louisiana Coushattas, and the Mississippi Band of Choctaw Indians were among those who either attended or helped to finance some of the Norquist-hosted soirees that were advertised as tax policy events...

The Indian tribes' participation in the ATR dinners and the White House visits underscores the long and successful political partnership that Norquist and Abramoff have maintained since the early 1980s, when Norquist managed Abramoff's successful campaign to be chairman of the College Republicans.

Don't forget Abramoff and Norquist's other buddy, Tom DeLay. Who commanded an army of ready stooges in Congress like Colorado's own Bob Beauprez. Beauprez's voting record in Congress is 96% identical to Tom DeLay's, making him Public Campaign's #1 "In DeLay's Pocket" poster child. Who DeLay -- and for that matter Grover Norquist -- has been working for is now a matter of public record.

According to the press release on Congressman Beauprez's website, Norquist gave Bob Beauprez an "award" for his years of hard work. I'm thinking that says a mouthful...