Why The Bush-Abramoff Cover Up?

The first picture of Bush and Abramoff together has been published by the NYT and Time.



It's an unremarkable photo, with Abramoff barely visible in the left background (his identity has been confirmed by the White House) but the mere fact that it exists prompts a number of questions. Not least: why does the White House have no record of his visit? The meeting took place on May 9, 2001, in a conference room in the Eisenhower Executive Office Building adjacent to the White House.

Mr. McClellan said that Mr. Abramoff's name had not appeared on the invitation list of the May 2001 meeting and that it was unclear how the lobbyist had entered the White House grounds.

Why the cover up? What are they hiding?