So, the Abramoff mess is a GOP scandal after all

Syndicated columnist Clarence Page on the media myth of this "bipartisan" scandal. From the Houston Chronicle:

"There are no Democrats who took money from Jack Abramoff," Dean answered. "Not one. Not one single Democrat. ... There is no evidence that Jack Abramoff ever gave any Democrat any money and we've looked through all those FEC (Federal Election Commission) reports to make sure that's true."

He's right, according to the nonpartisan Center for Responsive Politics, which keeps track of such things. Their analysis of FEC records shows that Democrats received about a third of the $4.2 million donated between 1998 and 2005 by tribes that had hired Abramoff to represent them in Washington, but none from Abramoff's own wallet.

By all indications, donations from the Indian tribes were no less legitimate than the donations any other individual, organization or industry with an interest in legislation gave to candidates. That's a shortcoming of campaign donation reports: They tell you how much money someone gave to a candidate but not why they gave it.

If anything, the tribes are one of the true victims in the Abramoff saga. Investigators say Abramoff referred to his Indian clients with racist slurs in his e-mails and represented some tribes while also representing their rival tribes who were competing for the same casino turf — the mother of all conflicts of interest!

Click here for the rest.

Here's something I wrote in Real Art comments last week during a friendly little argument with my pal Tara about whether the Democrats are involved in this or not:

It's hard to say exactly what, if any, Abramoff money made it's way toward Democrats--I don't think it's fair to say that the Indian tribes he ripped off are part of his machine. Now, having said that, let me state, for the record, my overall position. I think that Abramoff would have definitely been giving money to buttloads of Democrats if they were the majority party instead of the GOP. And buttloads of Dems would be lined up with their hands out, just waiting to be bribed. I feel certain that this particular scandal is Republican in nature, but Abramoff is just one lobbyist. What he represents, then, is a political system that is fully corrupt, which includes the so-called "liberal" Democrats, for whom I have little love. Really, they just got lucky on this one. Fuck them, too. However, given the extreme hostility and polarity of the politics here, for the moment I'm pushing GOP guilt.

In other words, I essentially agree with you: the Democrats are also mired in corruption and corporate cash. But you've got to admit that this whole Abramoff thing looks waaay worse for the Republicans.

So while the Democrats aren't at all off the hook for playing the same kind of game in their own way, this one is all about the Republicans, and, boy, I'm just loving it!

For the entire exchange between me and Tara, click here.

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