Abramoff's College Days:ALaddin Shame

The son of a wealthy Beverly Hills businessman Jack came to Brandeis where he raised Republican hell and drove a 76 Cougar. The Boston Globe has an article on Jack Abramoff's roots at a college known for promoting social justice issues which now finds their alum an embarrassment. He went against the grain in 1977.......

Jack Abramoff, class of '81, resident of Deroy Hall, hated David Bowie, loved ice cream, and was always up for a trip to TGI Friday's on Newbury Street. Stocky and tan, he favored sweat pants and baseball caps.

But this passionately liberal campus is where the young Abramoff found his identity as a conservative firebrand who was not afraid to confront student protesters, hang banners for Ronald Reagan off Route 128, and cook up political hijinks in the name of God and country.

Hated Bowie? Such Alladdin Shame even then.

Selected the lead student organizer for Reagan in Massachusetts, Abramoff hung ''Reagan '80" banners off bridges over Route 128, helped register 3,000 students to vote, schmoozed men in South Boston social clubs, and accompanied Maureen Reagan, the candidate's daughter, on a trip to Brookline to persuade the Bostoner Rebbe, a national Hasidic leader, to endorse Reagan, a nod that was believed to be worth thousands of Orthodox Jewish votes.

Do you remember, your president nixon?
Do you remember, the bills you have to pay
Or even yesterday

When 100 sign-toting students took to Yakus Plaza in front of the student center, protesting US military aid to El Salvador and chanting ''one, two, three, four, US hands off El Salvador," Abramoff crashed the demonstration, waving American flags in students' faces and belting out ''God Bless America." Disgruntled students wrote that week to The Justice, denouncing Abramoff and the Republicans who had joined him as brutes.

And these children that you spit on
As they try to change their worlds
Are immune to your consultations
They're quite aware of what they're going through

Abramoff also charted his own course socially. At parties, he rarely drank and would leave the room when students smoked marijuana, friends said. He dated the same woman, a quiet pre-premed student, all four years

Ground Control to Major Tom
Take your protein pills and put your helmet on'

'The person that I knew was smiling and laughing much more readily than the scowling images that you see on television now," Rovins said. ''This is a guy that loved to laugh and loved to joke more than anything."

Ha ha ha, hee hee hee
"I'm a laughing Gnome and you don't catch me"


How different things may have been if Jack had toked up, got laid a lot and heeded Bowie ..........

So I turned myself to face me
But I've never caught a glimpse
Of how the others must see the faker
I'm much too fast to take that test
Changes

Fame, what you like is in the limo
Fame, what you get is no tomorrow
Fame, what you need you have to borrow
Fame

Rebel Rebel, you've torn your dress
Rebel Rebel, your face is a mess

Who'll love Aladdin Sane Shame
Millions weep a fountain, just in case of sunrise
Who'll love Aladdin Sane Shame

But alas no. All I can say is......

Ohhh, Wham Bam Thank You Ma'am! Jack