Democrats Didn’t Know Jack

Democrats Didn't Know Jack

But the Morris and Associates analysis,
which was done exclusively for The Prospect, clearly shows that it’s highly
misleading to suggest that the tribes's giving to Dems was in any way comparable
to their giving to the GOP. The analysis shows that when Abramoff took on his
tribal clients, the majority of them dramatically ratcheted up donations to
Republicans. Meanwhile, donations to Democrats from the same clients either
dropped, remained largely static or, in two cases, rose by a far smaller percentage
than the ones to Republicans did. This pattern suggests that whatever money
went to Democrats, rather than having been steered by Abramoff, may have largely
been money the tribes would have given anyway.
DEMS
DON'T KNOW JACK (via)

Seriously, and one more time with feeling, Democrats do take lobbying
money, but they don't know Jack. The distinction is the difference between legal
lobbying, lying and getting in trouble with the law.

What part of that does Ms.
Couric not understand?

However, she's not alone.

LAUER: Katie pressed him [Howard Dean]
on that and we did some research. We went to
the Center for Responsive Politics and found out that technically speaking,
Howard Dean may be correct. But here’s what we found.
That 66 percent of the money in this situation went to Republicans, but 34
percent of the money — not from Abramoff, but from his associates and
clients — went to Democrats. So, can Democrats wash their hands of this?

RUSSERT: No, they will say it is a primarily a Republican
scandal because the personal money of Abramoff went only to Republicans. But
Matt, the issue is broad and wide. Democrats also understand that they accept
trips from lobbyists and meals and so forth, and that’s why in order
to reform all this, it has to be a bipartisan approach. But Democrats get
raging mad when you suggest this is a bipartisan scandal.

The reason we rebut the assumption that Abramoff is a
“bipartisan scandal” is that it simply isn't true. The K-Street
Project was totally and completely Republican.

Now, if you want to talk about lobbying reform, no problem, because
Democrats do take lobbying money. It's legal and how people get elected, though
it's important to remember that all lobbying money seems to tie Senator John
McCain's skivvies in a bunch.

However, to say that Abramoff is about simple lobbying, money
that Democratic Party candidates welcome to their campaigns, is like saying
John Gotti's problems were about anger management.