Haberman On Abramoff's Hat

DB had the definitive round-up of stories on disgraced lobbyist Jack Abramoff's hat last week. Clyde Haberman rounds out the collection by adding a paragraph in his NYC column from today's NY Times (registration required):

Consider the case of Jack Abramoff, the wheeler-dealer lobbyist at the center of a corruption scandal. Mr. Abramoff is destined to be fitted soon for an orange jumpsuit. But last week, still a free man, he left a Washington courthouse in a black fedora and a black trench coat. The fedora was all that some needed to decide the guy was no good.

"Dressed like a crime boss," a Washington post writer said of him. "He could not have appeared more guilty, more menacing and more unsympathetic than if he had walked out wielding a baseball bat and muttering something about so-and-so sleeping with the fishes."

Mr Abramoff is said to love the "Godfather" films. He is also an Orthodox Jew. There has been some debate over whether he wore the black hat to signal his religiosity in a sympathy ploy or, rather, to get in touch with his inner Luca Brasi. Either way, the fedora itself became an issue.

I highly doubt that Abramoff wore the hat in a ploy to garner sympathy for being an Orthodox Jew. With all the ambiguity about whether he more closely resembled a Godol or a gangster, I think that in order to play the religious card he would (or at least should) have sooner made the choice of donning a Kippah than a Borsalino. Also, is it just me, or does anyone else think that stressing his religious observance would only serve to garner him more public disgust at his actions, rather than more sympathy. As would going for the look of a Mob boss.

Sometimes, a hat is just something one chooses to put on his head - even if it happens to be a particularly poor choice.