Conspiracy theorists, gather round

Maybe it??s all a series of random occurrences. Then again, maybe not.

On Sunday, the Washington Post ran a story reporting that a credit card belonging to Washington lobbyist Jack Abramoff was used to pay for airfare to London and Scotland in 2000 for the then-House Majority Whip Tom DeLay (R-Tex.).

This gets a bit complicated so bear with me.

If the story holds up, then it??s a big problem for DeLay, these days the current House majority leader. That??s because the House??s ethics rules prohibit that sort of thing.

But what piqued my interest was the tidbit that the flight invoice listed Preston Gates & Ellis, the firm that then employed Abramoff as a lobbyist. Computer history buffs will recall that Preston Gates & Ellis was co-founded by William H. Gates, Sr., the father of Microsoft founder Bill Gates.

I point that out because only last week the New York Times reported that the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation had contributed a substantial sums to the DeLay Foundation for Kids since 2001.

So maybe it is pure coincidence. Then again??.