Abramoff: Lobbying reforms haven't fixed 'flawed' system

Abramoff's interview with "60 Minutes" aired the night before a memoir, "Capitol Punishment," is scheduled to hit shelves. In excerpts released ahead of the broadcast, he told CBS that lobbyists could find a way around just about any reform Congress enacted.

"There's an arrogance on the part of lobbyists, and certainly there was on the part of me and my team, that no matter what they come up with, we're smarter than them. We'll just find another way through," he said.

Years later, Abramoff describes some of the techniques he employed as a lobbyist as "evil," "terrible" and, at the same time, "effective" for his firm, his clients and Republican politicians he usually worked with.

"I did things, and I was involved in a system that I should not have been in," he said, explaining he rationalized his behavior in part by giving away much of his earnings to charities. "I'm ashamed ... It was wrong what we were doing."

The high-flying Republican lobbyist pleaded guilty to a raft of federal corruption charges in 2006 and agreed to cooperate with prosecutors investigating Washington influence-peddling. He admitted illegally showering gifts on officials who provided favors for his clients in a probe that led to convictions or guilty pleas for 20 lobbyists and public officials -- including Ohio GOP congressman Bob Ney and Stephen Griles, the Bush administration's deputy interior secretary.

Abramoff said the best way to get what he wanted to was to offer high-ranking congressional aides a job when they left public office. Once that was done, he told CBS, "We owned them."