NBC reports how this blogger warned lobbyists to stay away from Russian company at center of congressional scandal

NBC Nightly News reports how this blogger in 1997 warned a Washington lobbying firm to stay away from a shadowy Russian oil company that sought to buy influence on Capitol Hill.

Senior Investigative Correspondent Lisa Myers and the NBC Investigative Unit report that the head of the Russian company in question paid the expenses of Washington "superlobbyist" Jack Abramoff and House Majority Leader Tom DeLay during a 1997 visit to Moscow.

The new information validates this blogger's warnings from eight years ago that Abramoff was reckless in taking influence-peddling money from the Russian company, and that involving Members of Congress in the scheme would endanger them to political scandal or worse.

Abramoff and his staff ignored the warnings and, ultimately, got DeLay in needless political trouble.

Though news organizations have investigated the issue exhaustively, they have produced no evidence indicating that DeLay did anything unethical or illegal. In the NBC program, this blogger places the blame squarely on Abramoff.