DISPELLING THE GOP "BIPARTISAN"
LIES ABOUT THE ABRAMOFF SCANDAL

Since it became clear that evil lobbyist Jack Abramoff was going to flip and testify against lawmakers about his bribery-for-legislation scam, the Republican Party has been working overtime to limit the political damage by trying to brand the scandal as "bipartisan" in the media--that is, the GOP continues to assert that Democrats, too, were on the take. Even though not a single Democrat took money from Abramoff himself, some did take campaign contributions from his clients, principally the three Indian tribes he bilked out of millions of dollars. Does that really make the scandal "bipartisan?"

From Bloomberg courtesy of the Daily Kos:

Abramoff's 'Equal Money' Went Mostly to Republicans

Mostly Republicans

Between 2001 and 2004, Abramoff joined with his former partner, Michael Scanlon, and tribal clients to give money to a third of the members of Congress, including former House Majority Leader Tom DeLay, according to records of the Federal Election Commission and Internal Revenue Service. At least 171 lawmakers got $1.4 million in campaign donations from the group. Republicans took in most of the money, with 110 lawmakers getting $942,275, or 66 percent of the total.

Of the top 10 political donors among Indian tribes in that period, three are former clients of Abramoff and Scanlon: the Saginaw Chippewa Tribe of Michigan, the Mississippi Band of Choctaw Indians, and the Agua Caliente Band of Cahuilla Indians of California. All three gave most of their donations to Republicans -- by margins of 30 percentage points or more -- while the rest favored Democrats.

Abramoff faces allegations that he bilked the casino-owning tribes out of millions of dollars and attempted to corrupt public officials. E-mails released by the Senate Indian Affairs Committee during a year of hearings offer evidence that he directed the tribes to donate funds to specific lawmakers.

Continued to Give

Abramoff's tribal clients continued to give money to Democrats even after he began representing them, although in smaller percentages than in the past.

The Saginaw Chippewas gave $500,500 to Republicans between 2001 and 2004 and $277,210 to Democrats, according to a review of data compiled by Dwight L. Morris & Associates, a Bristow, Virginia-based company that tracks campaign-finance reports. Between 1997 and 2000, the tribe gave just $158,000 to Republicans and $279,000 to Democrats.

Click here for the rest.

Well, that's a lot of words, but Kos contributor Armando puts it all into perspective:

Abramoff pushed his Indian tribe clients AWAY from Dems and TO Republicans. That is, Abramoff DIRECTED his Indian tribe clients to give LESS or NOT AT ALL to Democrats and to give MORE OR ALL of their contributions to Republicans.

There you have it. Couple what Armando says with the fact that these three tribes were already contributing heavily to Democrats, and that the seven other top contributing Indian Tribes favored Democrats as well, and it appears that there's nothing amiss. In other words, it sure does seem that Indians, like most other non-white ethnicities in the US, tend to favor Democrats because the party, a traditional supporter of civil rights, tends to support their interests.

Of course Indians give money to Democrats. What's surprising is that some tribes ended up giving more money to Republicans, as if they were the party of good ethnic vibes, which is almost funny. Obviously, the factor that blows the curve here is indicted Republican lobbyist Jack Abramoff; he's the one who directed these three tribes to donate to Congressmen from a Party that really couldn't care less about Indian affairs.

Clearly, the right wing is having some success in capitalizing on the confusion. But confusion is all it is: make no mistake; this is a Republican scandal, and no amount of rhetorical obfuscation is going to change that.

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