Abramoff

Okay. There's been a lot of misinformation spread about Jack Abramoff and his ties with the various political parties. Let's try to clear some of that up here.

• Who is Jack Abramoff? Let's start at the beginning. Some of you may be completely new to this story, so let's introduce you to this man. The Wikipedia article is a great place to start. We find that he is a lifelong Republican, a former chairman of the College Republican National Committee, who helped support Ronald Reagan and Oliver North. There's plenty more in the article, worth a read if you're wondering more about him.
  

• What is this scandal? Once again, Wikipedia is an invaluable source. This bit sums it up nicely:
  

  The Jack Abramoff lobbying and corruption scandal is a United States political scandal relating to the work performed by political lobbyists Jack Abramoff, Ralph E. Reed, Jr., Grover Norquist and Michael Scanlon on behalf of Indian casino gambling interests. The lobbyists are accused of orchestrating lobbying against their own clients in order to force them to pay for lobbying services.
  
  In the course of the scheme, the lobbyists are accused of illegally giving gifts and making campaign donations to legislators in return for votes or support of legislation. Politicians implicated include Tom DeLay, Conrad Burns, Tom Harkin and Bob Ney. Repercussions of the investigation caused DeLay to decline to reseek his former position as House leader.

  He bribed public officials to gain influence; perhaps you've heard of this happening before.
  
  
• Who is involved? Let's make this clear right now: this is a Republican scandal. As Howard Dean put it:
  

  There are no Democrats who took money from Jack Abramoff. Not one. Not one single Democrat. Every person named in this scandal is a Republican, every person under investigation is a Republican, every person indicted is a Republican. This is a Republican finance scandal. There is no evidence that Jack Abramoff ever gave any Democrat any money, and we've looked through all those FEC reports to make sure that's true.

  (Video of the above conversation)
  
  In case you doubt the good doctor, we have a list of Abramoff's donations.
  
  But wait, you might say. The Wikipedia article about the scandal says that several Democrats received money from Native American tribes linked to Abramoff! What if Abramoff was directing the tribes to give this money to Democrats? Wouldn't that be just as bad?
  
  Well, maybe, but the fact is that if he was directing them to give money to Democrats, it doesn't show. We have a Washington Post article in which it is written:
  

  Under Abramoff's guidance, the four tribes -- Michigan's Saginaw Chippewas, the Agua Caliente of California, the Mississippi Choctaws and the Louisiana Coushattas -- have also become major political donors. They have loosened their traditional ties to the Democratic Party, giving Republicans two-thirds of the $2.9 million they have donated to federal candidates since 2001, records show.

  
  So the tribes affiliated with him did give money to Democrats (as can be seen in this misleading Washington Post graphic), it was certainly NOT because Abramoff directed them to.
  
  
• Why am I posting all of this? Because there is a lot of misinformation about this case going around. Some highlights include:
  
  
  
  
  • Deborah Howell saying that Abramoff "had made substantial campaign contributions to both major parties." Then, even worse, was her "correction, in which she stated: "A better way to have said it would be that Abramoff 'directed' contributions to both parties."
    
    
  • Then we have Kyra Phillips sticking up for Howell, saying that what she wrote was true.
    
    
  And of course there are others, but it depresses me to try to find them. Just make sure that if you see something like this, you're not fooled yourself!