I must be an idiot, too, because I'm wondering the same thing.
Surely he did something worse than the rest of them, right?
Or did he just get caught and the rest of them have run to the hills?
Thanks for admitting you are wondering the same! :)
He didn't give anything to John McCain?!
He organized the bribery of Congress on an industrial scale, too big to be ignored.
The entire legislative system has been converted to a bribery machine, and I'm sure Abramoff believed his crimes were nothing new - and, he's right.
But the linkage to the "Indian" casino scam was a novelty which upped the funds available, and Jack A engineered a never-ending stream of cash from that source which could be, and was, turned to many uses.
What is the difference between Abramoff and Soros?
I think what he did is far beyond what other lobbyists do. As I read it, he pled to three forms of criminal behavior:
1) a fraud scheme, where he encouraged his clients to use a PR firm owned by a friend, the clients were overcharged, and money was kicked back to Abramoff,
2) tax evasion, where he falsely reported charitable contributions,
3) bribing members of congress, in which money or other valuables was exchanged for specific acts by the member. Apparently he has e-mails detailing what acts and by whom were done in return for bribes.
He apparently was also involved in a fraud scheme in Florida involving the purchase of gambling boats.
Keep in mind, this doesn't mean that every client of Abramoff was ripped off - he may have done some legal lobbying - and not every member of congress that received money from him was bribed. The lists of donation-recipients are largely uninformative - there could have been legitimate donations - what matters is who can be implicated in some sort of quid pro quo agreement.