Thanks to intrepid Time reporter Karen Tumulty, we now know that superlobbyist Jack Abramoff's fondness for buying favors with beef dates all the way back to grade school.

According to Tumulty, Abramoff “was disqualified in his 1972 race for president of his Beverly Hills elementary school, after a teacher discovered he had violated the school's campaign spending limits by serving hot dogs at an election party.”

I'm disappointed that Tumulty apparently lacked the resources to dig into Abramoff's kindergarten years; who knows, she might have found evidence that the littlest wheeler-dealer was doling out bologna sandwiches to any kid who would do his potato prints for him.