A lobbyist aims at McCain...

The knives are falling all around him, but Grover Norquist -- antitax crusader, Republican lobbyist, and Weston native -- insists they won't fall on him.

A Norquist friend and former colleague, Jack Abramoff, is under criminal investigation for his lobbying activities, some of which involved the same Native American tribe on Norquist's client roster. The noose on Abramoff appeared to have tightened Monday when his former business partner, Michael Scanlon, agreed to cooperate with prosecutors after pleading guilty to one count of conspiracy to bribe public officials and to defraud Indian tribes.

At a breakfast meeting with reporters the next morning, Norquist behaved as if this was all nuisance background noise, as he mostly held forth on the state of the ongoing war between the political left and right.

Finally, when pressed on the investigations, he was curt and unapologetic. ''We worked with the Choctaw Indians. We did a book, and I was hoping to do more outreach with Native Americans," said Norquist, the president of Americans for Tax Reform. ''Jack, I'm sure he advised the Choctaws. But the Choctaws worked with ATR and they're happy with ATR."

Last year, a Senate committee investigating allegations that Abramoff defrauded Indian tribes obtained e-mail traffic from ATR, but Norquist says he had not been contacted by government prosecutors in the Abramoff case. Now the conservative activist is on the warpath against Senator John McCain, Republican of Arizona, who is leading the Senate investigation.

After ATR turned over its e-mails, Norquist charged, McCain tried to ''steal our donor list."

''He subpoenaed our donor records and we said no," Norquist said. ''He took a shot at me and it didn't work and it embarrassed him."

Norquist then accused McCain and Senator Byron L. Dorgan, a North Dakota Democrat, of discrimination by targeting lobbyists who worked for Native American tribes. Abramoff and his partners collected $82 million in fees from Indian tribes and their casinos over four years.

''The implication is that it's money laundering to raise money from Native Americans, and spend it," Norquist said.

. . . And senator's camp fires back

An early favorite in the 2008 presidential race, McCain is in a delicate position with political conservatives, who have held a grudge against him since he ran in 2000 against George W. Bush.

While McCain has been trying to smooth ruffled feathers on the right, his investigation into the Abramoff scandal, which he has called ''a complex and tangled web . . . a story alarming in its depth and breadth of potential wrongdoing," reinforces the bad blood with Norquist and his political allies. Apparently, McCain could not care less.

When we asked the senator's staff for a comment on Norquist's fusillade against McCain, his chief of staff, Mark Salter, had a lot to say. ''In Norquist's world, the truth is for suckers. And it's as pointless to respond to him as it would be to respond to some street-corner schizophrenic," Salter responded.

''There is nothing remotely accurate about his recollection of the committee's dealings with him," he added. ''Nor, obviously, is his charge of discrimination credible, considering that it is made against someone who has a long and well-known record of respect for the tribes by someone who excuses ripping them off."

Markey tosses off another zinger

Representative Edward J. Markey has a reputation as a master of the barbed retort, a skill he exercised with gusto during the last go-round on Capitol Hill over homeland security legislation.

Markey offered an amendment to the bill addressing one of his pet concerns -- the beefing up of inspections of cargo containers to thwart potential terrorist attacks. He was making his pitch to fellow committee members when one of his longtime political nemeses, Don Young, Republican of Alaska, walked into the room.

Young, 72, a bearded former riverboat captain, and Markey, 59, a boyish-looking lawyer, have been on the opposite side of just about every issue over the past quarter-century they have served together in Congress. But with the Republicans in control, and with Young at the helm of the largesse-shoveling Transportation Committee, it's not hard to figure out which man has more power.

As Young took his seat, and finished listening to Markey describe his amendment, he asked to be recognized for 30 seconds. Then he urged a ''no" vote, explaining that this was a Markey amendment, and that ''this has been going on for 30 years," presumably an allusion to the Massachusetts Democrat's tenure in Congress. Young then noted that the amendment would come ''to my [transportation] committee, and I don't think you want to do damage to your legislation."

Markey couldn't resist an under-the-belt punch at Young, who had just been embarrassed by accusations of pork-barrel politics by pushing for a multimillion-dollar bridge connecting a sparsely populated area of his state -- widely characterized as a boondoggle.

''So," Markey replied in his thick Boston accent, ''that would be a bridge to nowhere?"

A vote was called on the amendment, and Markey lost.

Later, in the parking garage, Markey said Young had told him he was just kidding.

Young and his staff could not be reached for comment.