Moon Dog Lived in a Packing Crate for the Last Two Years
A homeless Washington lobbyist apparently has moved out of the packing crate in Karl Rove’s garage where he has lived for the past two years.
“Yes, we have a Moon Dog. He joined us a few nights ago,” said Willard Wesley, the manager of the Crescent Sky homeless shelter in southeast Washington. “Said he got tired of having to use a garden hose in someone’s backyard whenever he wanted a shower.”
Attempts to reach a member of the Rove family to confirm the lobbyist’s departure from their garage were unavailing. Karl Rove is one of President Bush’s most senior political advisers.
Moon Dog, whose real name is believed to be Standish Jessup, once worked for former lobbyist Jack Abramoff, who is now serving a five-year sentence in Federal prison for defrauding American Indian tribes and bribing public officials.
Standish Jessup was a shadowy figure as the Abramoff scandal unfolded in 2005. He apparently helped Abramoff with some of his lobbying work, but prosecutors who investigated Abramoff’s network did not pursue him as aggressively as they did Abramoff and some of his other associates.
How Moon Dog came to live in a packing crate in the Rove garage is not clear, though Mrs. Rove is known to have a soft spot for political operatives and others in public life who fall on hard times.
Moon Dog’s presence in the Rove garage was revealed in late 2005 as a result of reporters camped outside the Rove townhouse in northeast Washington. They waited to catch Rove as he left for work and ask him questions. To show reporters that her husband was not at home, Mrs. Rove opened the garage door so they could see that his car was gone.
A quick-thinking Associated Press photographer snapped a picture of the garage contents. Analysis of the photograph using the latest photogrammetry technology revealed the packing crate, evidence that it was regularly lived in and recently washed underwear drying on a clothesline stretched across the garage.
Moon Dog, a regular Farragut Square panhandler during the day, was eventually linked to the Rove garage, where he returned each night and used a keypad code to enter.
At Farragut Square yesterday, a panhandler named Squamish said that he hadn’t seen Moon Dog recently. “He said he was going to make a new start and get out of the bad place he was living in. Said he didn’t like the vibes there.”