This has bothered me since yesterday. A Washington Post page 1 story was headlined: “Lobby Firm Is Scandal Casualty: Abramoff, DeLay Publicity Blamed for Shutdown.” A seemingly related New York Times front page story ran under this head: “Lobbyist’s Firm Escapes From a Scandal.”

So which is it? Is past affiliation with Jack Abramoff and/or Tom DeLay a kiss of death or isn’t it? In the first case, the firm in question, Alexander Strategy Group, is a small business that last employed about a dozen lobbyists in Washington, some very close to Abramoff-DeLay. In the second case, the firm in question, Greenberg Traurig, is a major law firm employing some 1,500 lawyers in more than 25 offices in several major cities. Abramoff earned a mere $1 million a year from it before he was fired in 2004. Clearly, in pure business terms, there is safety in size and numbers. But interesting how the New York Times seems to prefer bigger game.