ABRAMOFF: The Democratic Money Myth
04 January 2006 3:46 pm by Taylor Marsh
ABRAMOFF: The Democratic Money Myth
“The guilty plea of lobbyist Jack Abramoff cuts
two ways. First, it strikes fear in the hearts of members of Congress-mainly
Republicans, but also some Democrats-that they will be implicated in the prosecution
as recipients of Abramoff's favors. Second, the overriding sense of scandal
in Washington looks like a negative for Republicans in '06 as a similar climate
was for Democrats in '52.” – Robert Novak via “Human Events”
The tit for tat scandal temptation is ripe for Republicans running for cover.
Unfortunately, it just won't wash.
The Michael
Petrilis Files shows us where Jack Abramoff's money went: $172,933
Republican, $88,985 special interest = total:
$261,918. He also links to a site that illustrates what Dems
have been saying all along. There is no there there on the Democratic gift
giving side of Jack Abramoff's crooked largesse.
NEWSMEAT
has the bottom line. Seriously, go back and click on that link.
Hotline has been all over the story.
An earlier post took the NRSC to task for claiming
on their website that
“”Forty of forty five members of the Democrat Senate Caucus took
money from Jack Abramoff.”Not true; Abramoff personally gave money to
GOPers only.NRSC spokesman Brian Nick calls it a typo and correctly
points out that other pages on the site add thge words “and associates
and tribal clients” when writing of Abramoffian contributions to Dems.Still, is it really fair to say that “40
of the 45 members of the Senate Democrat Caucus have taken money from Abramoff,
his associates, and Indian tribe clients.”Abramoff AND the others? No — just the others.
Not Abramoff.Abramoff himself did not donate a penny of his personal
money to Democrats, so far as we can tell. So it'd be accurate to say that
“Abramoff's associates and tribal clients” gave to Dems.Some of the “Abramoff-related” money linked
to Dems comes from Greenberg Traurig's political action committee. Greenberg
is a huge bipartisan legal/lobby firm. It regularly gives money to members
of both parties. …
We all understand why Novak, the RNC, the Bushies and everyone
else is trying to link the Democrats with this disaster that is overtaking Republicans,
but going all the way back to 1952? Baby, this is big, really, really big.
