Must read: "Nothing Bipartisan About Congressional Scandal" by Gene Lyons

[flpoljunkie]

http://www.nwanews.com/adg/Editorial/142264/print/

American politics offers few spectacles quite so diverting as the pious hypocrite unmasked. For your entertainment dollar, nothing beats the United States Congress in full scandal mode. Particularly, it must be said, a Republican Congress. So brazen and nefarious were the schemes of former GOP House Majority Leader Tom DeLay, for example, that it appears “The Hammer” might with more accuracy have been dubbed “The Chisel.” What with GOP super-lobbyist Jack Abramoff having pleaded guilty to five felony counts of conspiracy, fraud and tax evasion, and agreeing to help prosecutors, there’s no telling how many high-fliers he’ll take down with him. Abramoff boasts that he’s got the goods on as many as 60 congressmen and their staffs. He’s probably blowing smoke, but plenty of name-brand Republicans are having trouble sleeping nights. But God forbid anybody call a spade a spade. In keeping with Republican National Committee talking points, many in the media are loath to call it a partisan scandal. Every TV account I’ve seen, whether on CBS, ABC or CNN, has stressed that voters blame Democrats and Republicans equally for corruption.

<>If Democrats have any sense, they’ll emphasize two aspects of the scandal, First is the massive betrayal of faith and trust.

“Rarely has the contrast between the rhetoric of the religious right and the behavior of its leaders,” writes my colleague Joe Conason, “been so starkly exposed as in the Abramoff scandal.”

An orthodox Jew, Abramoff missed few chances to pose as a man of God and philanthropist while bribing legislators with casino cash. Former Christian Coalition choirboy Ralph Reed played along, admonishing the faithful in Texas and Louisiana to fight the moral scourge of gambling while helping himself to millions from Mississippi casinos that he was secretly working for. DeLay has rarely missed an opportunity to stress his personal relationship with God. He’s repeatedly lambasted Democrats for having the “wrong world view.” Meanwhile, his U. S. Family Network was building the nation’s “moral fitness” by taking $ 1 million checks from Russian oligarchs presumably in return for services rendered. And while this pious cohort has been lining its pockets, taking lobbyist-paid golfing excursions to Scotland, enjoying sumptuous feasts in Malaysia and sightseeing in Moscow, American families have gotten little or no help with issues politicians can actually do something about, such as stagnating wages, vanishing pensions and affordable medical care.

__________

Excellent advice for Democrats from Gene Lyons. Let's hope they take it!

[Loonman]

1. "If Democrats have any sense"

Big "IF".

Democrats are renowned for pulling an embarrassing defeat out of 'can't lose' situations.

[ChairmanAgnostic]

2. Clarence Page does a Mea culpa in today's Trib as well.

interesting.
The media is FINALLY seeing the truth for what it is.
Will that stop the GOP honchos from lying and spreading untruths? of course not. It is second nature for them to spread lies.

[sinkingfeeling]

3. Gene keeps plugging away in the Arkansas Fascist-Gazette!!

[Hestia]

13. Breath of Fresh Air in Arkansas

Good to see some sanity coming from the ol' home state.
Kudo's Gene.

[DIKB]

24. He's the highlight

of my week, I get the paper every day. The Editors are notorious for their attacks on Clinton, and for their justification of *. Sadly it's the better of the only 2 choices we have in my town, Praise Mithras for DU.

[Trevelyan]

30. God bless Capt. Bowling's soul and his family - thank you for posting

the faces behind the statistics.

One good thing that the WaPo does is to publish the photos and circumstances of the deaths of so many of our young soldiers every few months. They should publish the photos and stories, on a regular basis, of our soldiers that are greviously wounded and the fact that on AnySoldier, you can see that things that should be automatic government issue like blankets, boots and camelhump canteens for the desert conditions are STILL not being issued to our soldiers. Shameful!

[NoFederales]

4. Barring the Corporatist Dems, the culture of corruption is an extremist

right wing gorge at the trough that is Republican. You have to blame the Repubs who stayed, who had their party hijacked so-to-speak, but they are complicit. I am glad I left the Republican Party, but it is still tough trying to see who amongst the Opposition is really any different than the RWers. I feel encouraged by Dean and Edwards, but they don't seem well appreciated by the Democrats as a whole. I was impressed that Senator Clinton went after Bush (calling them incompetent, etc.), but she seems so solidly corporate.

More articles like Lyon's need to be out there; divisive against corruption is a good thing, right?

NoFederales

[emald]

5. democrats don't have any sense

or we wouldn't be in the position we are. It seems to me that both parties are in cahoots to steal from the american public. I have no faith that anything is going to change.

[redqueen]

8. Then why are you even here?

Why not just consume and watch teevee with all the other doom-and-gloomers and keep your counterproductive comments off this site?

[emald]

20. counterproductive comments?

Are you channeling GWBushit? Telling others what they can and can't say? Don't like what I have to say block me out. Thats your right and easily done. You'll never be bothered with my "counterproductive comments" again. But I get my say up until the mods decide to kick me out regardless of whether you think it's productive or not.
As to consuming and watching television whats that got to do with anything? Strange, I didn't attack you personally, but you seem to think thats an appropriate reaction. Jeeez, you need some PMS pills. Join the repubs if you want to trash people without knowing them. Sounds to me like you might get along fine with them.

[redqueen]

21. Oh I do so love it when it's insinuated that I'm a freeper.

Yes, your comments are counterproductive.

You basically said dems have no sense, are just as bad as republicans, and that there's no point bothering due to that being the case.

I asked you a honest question.

If you honestly feel that dems have no sense or are just as bad as the GOP, and that there's no hope... why come here? Is the purpose of this site to convince people that there's no hope so just go back to sleep? Or is it to motivate people to make changes?

How did I "trash" you, anyway?

SO many persecution complexes on display today...

[Trevelyan]

31. I agree with Emald that we need to look very carefully at ALL Incumbents

Since another journalist, NYT Mr. Rosenblum, was just murdered by the bush crime family maybe we should elect combat veterans to Congress. Many Iraqi veterans are running for Congress as Democrats and I think the question is more if we should boycott elections if the same old Democratic faces that not only voted for the Iraqi war but who are still supporting it should be sent a message - BEFORE the elections, let the Democratic party know that Corporate Hillary is not going be able to do a John Kerry "Anybody But Bush" number on us and that warmongers of either party are not welcome on the ballots.

[redqueen]

35. Emald didn't say that.

Emald said they have no faith that anything will change, and that democrats have no sense and are as bad as republicans.

If they said all the stuff you just said, that would kinda belie the whole having no faith thing.

[flpoljunkie]

22. You are not alone in that fear-that things in Washington will not change.

And that Democrats will not push for meaningful lobbying reform. That fact that Steny Hoyer, House Democratic Whip, is meeting today with David Drier, R-CA to discuss "bipartisan" reform, is not encouraging.

[LynneSin]

6. Damn, Dean said it best (To that idiot Blitzer)!!

“There are no Democrats who took money from Jack Abramoff,” Dean answered. “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.... I know the Republican National Committee would like to get the Democrats involved in this. They’re scared. They should be scared. They haven’t told the truth.”

[4morewars]

17. Have you seen the video ?

Enjoy !

http://www.crooksandliars.com/2006/01/08.html#a6627

[WhereIsMyFreedom]

28. Thanks for the link

That was beautiful to see. Dean never ceases to amaze me. It is pretty pathetic that seeing a politician speak the blunt truth is novel.

[sweetm2475]

7. great article. hope the dems take what he said and run with it.

they should stand up to these idiots. why let your political future rest on the fact that voters have been brainwashed to think that this is a "bipartisan" scandal? good on dean, good on gene lyons, i hope the dems in congress are listening.:headbang:

[wysiwyg]

9. NPR didn't mention party at all for Abramoff

I listented to a fairly detailed report on the Abramoff plea the other day on NPR. One word that was never mentioned in the entire report was "Republican".

[Trevelyan]

32. Need to Media Blast the propagada about "bipartisan" scandal

Thank you for letting us know the NPR didn't even mention REPUBLICAN with Abramoff's REPUBLICAN scandal -- they will be getting at least one email.

[Trevelyan]

33. Help Dean by Media Blasting - Rec'd a lot of info from this email:

Tell your friends about us and let 'em know where to sign up: http://www.rapidresponsenetwork.org

RAPID RESPONSE: Monday 1/9/06, Jack Abramoff Special

This Abramoff alert is long but it does follow a relatively 'most to least important' path. TheAbramoff issue has many tentacles -- it is amazingly complex and staggering in scope... Thus, it becomes easy for our media (big and small) to take the quick route out offering us news consumers falseequivalencies ("everybody did it") and lots of glossing over ("abramoff-related donations").

It is up to us to keep them honest and call a spade aspade.
----------------------------
ISSUE: False Equivalency
----------------------------

Here's a piece from Daily Kos on the dangers of how the press is treating the Abramoff story unless we shine the light of truth on this matter:

Abramoff: what's next and how you can help bring down the GOP
by dengre, DailyKos.com Wed Jan 04, 2006 http://tinyurl.com/akc72

Main points from "dengre":

- The GOP will lie. They will cherry pick slices of data to support simple-minded myths like "Everybody Does It" and "Abramoff gave money to Democrats."

- The press will have a very hard time with this story, because the corruption is so one-sided. Their"Balance Bias" will lead them to stupid examples of balance, like treating Harry Reid's legal support from Native American as equivalent to DeLay's $1 Million from the Russians, $500,000 from the Chinese owners of sweatshops and God (and Jack) knows what other bribes.

- The Public will get confused.

SEE ALSO:

The Fast Rise and Steep Fall of Jack Abramoff
By Susan Schmidt and James V. Grimaldi
Washington Post Thursday, December 29, 2005
http://tinyurl.com/bytus

(Main points from this comprehensive WaPo article are at the end of this alert.)

** ADDITIONAL RESEARCH **

For those of you with more time to delve into this matter:

What was that about Abramoff giving money to Democrats?
by John in DC AmericaBlog Wednesday, January 04, 2006 http://tinyurl.com/duzeo

Abramoff: The House That Jack Built Think Progress
(details and links to Politicians and right-wing Activists which have received money directly fromAbramoff, his firm or his clients)
http://www.thinkprogress.org/abramoff

The DeLay-Abramoff Money Trail
Nonprofit Group Linked to Lawmaker Was Funded Mostly by Clients of Lobbyist
By R. Jeffrey Smith Washington Post Saturday, December 31, 2005
http://tinyurl.com/9czmm

Corruption and the College Republican
Rolling Stone Magazine Jan 05, 2006
http://tinyurl.com/7jjlh

Hardball's Chris Matthews, FOX's Tony Snow and Britt Hume helped raise money for shady Abramoff charity
by John in DC AmericaBlog
Wednesday, January 04, 2006
http://tinyurl.com/add2t

Corruption Inquiry Threatens to Ensnare Lawmakers
By Philip Shenon The New York Times
Sunday 20 November 2005 via http://www.truthout.org

Late Edition with Wolf Blitzer (interview with Gov. Howard Dean)
CNN 1/8/06 http://tinyurl.com/bsyoj

[rg302200]

10. Why would Abramoff give to both sides???

That's defeating the purpose.....you don't bribe a man to help you then turn around and bribe his enemy! The media and the public are to ignorant to recognize this for what it really is.....the Republican Waterloo!

[wysiwyg]

11. Delay insisted in Ideological purity when dealing with lobbyists

You've got that right. Delay really made a point of only dealing with Republican lobbyists when he took over.

[erpowers]

12. Glad

I am glad someone has pointed this out. Most of the MSM has tried to blur the line on this by claiming that Abramoff gave to certain Republicans and then go right on to say that Democrats got money from clients of Abramoff. The problem is that they do it in a way that does not separate the two ideas as much as I did. Most of the time they just say that both Democrats and Republican took money from Abramoff and his clients. That makes it look like some Democrats took money directly from Abramoff.

[ooglymoogly]

14. what democrats must emphasize is the growing national

debt caused by this obscene and immoral corruption that will be passed on to our children. more than all previous administrations combined. americas' honor and standing in the world has been decimated by this bunch of inept criminals.

[flpoljunkie]

15. Medicare Rx bill, case in point. Biggest government program since Medicare

-an egregious giveaway to BIG PHARMA- one of the R's special interest sugar daddies. And, who is on the hook to pay for this program--the taxpayers, we the people.

[ramapo]

16. Should be a slam-dunk but....

Democrats across the nation should be ramping up a campaign that shows the stark contrast between their rhetoric and their actions over the past 25 years.

Term limits - An early winner for Republicans....quickly discarded once they got elected

Balanced budgets -- Ha Ha Ha Ha

Federal Deficit - Anybody remember Reagan bashing Carter & Democrats for a deficit so big that the pile of dollar bills would reach the moon or some such thing? Republicans have embraced deficit spending...Bush II accumulated more debt than every administration combined to yr. 2000

Corruption -- All those dirty Democrats...Republicans will restore honor and respect...while selling the government to the highest bidder

Competence - Hmmm FEMA, 9/11,

It's YOUR money --- Big Bush slogan in justifying tax cuts during campaign one. How about all that money of YOURS that has gone into the pockets of lobbyists, etc.?

The Republicans have engaged in such spectacular hypocrisy that Democrats should be able to wage a great campaign against Republican rule. Couple that with a positive agenda, with specific ideas and a minimum of vague, annoying, empty slogans and talking points, and Democrats should be elected in droves.

The only problem is that I don't believe the Democratic Party has what it takes to take advantage of the situation. We'll see....

[H2O]

18. I dont know

Nancy Pelosi has certainly been known to speak out rather vigorously on such issues as well as many others. She might be able to run with it. Of course, the Repugs will say "its just partisan bickering" etc, etc.

[flpoljunkie]

19. I'd like to know who put Steny "K Street" Hoyer in charge of lobby reform.

This does not bode well for real reform. Hoyer will meet with "Mr. Slick" Rep David Drier R-Ca, today to discuss "bipartisan" lobby reform.

http://www.nytimes.com/2006/01/11/politics/11cong.html?pagewanted=print

[Lasher]

29. Here's what Saint Ronnie of Reagan said

2/18/81
President Reagan warns a joint session of Congress that the national debt is approaching $1 trillion. "A trillion dollars," he explains, "would be a stack of $1,000 bills 67 miles high."

This was a statement that he repeated often.

BTW, the national debt hit $1 trillion on 10/23/81

http://www.quickchange.com/reagan/index.html

I do remember candidate Reagan being highly critical of Carter in this respect, as you say. But after Reagan was elected, the hypocrite ran up the largest budget deficits in history - a record since broken by both King George I and King George II.

http://ibew.org/legislative/Rev042304-JustFacts.pdf

[agincourt]

23. I respect the democratic party,

They are trying to preserve democracy in the land of GOPig fascists. Some are sellouts, sure, but most try to help their fellow Americans as much as they can in the loaded system. That's the problem , a loaded system of big money and vote fraud. We need a "had enough of your shit" political party.
The democrats play by the rules and get screwed.

[samhsarah]

25. great article. do hope the dems listen n/t

[liberaltrucker]

26. "Let's hope they take it"

What the hell have you been smoking. The current Democratic leadership has about as much balls as a Vienna choir boy:grr:

[Up2Late]

27. Absolutely, I truly think we should even use the 1994-2004 GOP rhetoric!

Throw it right back in their faces.

[Lasher]

34. Ex-Aide Pleads Guilty to Bribing Congressman (Democrat scandal)

It is true to say that the Abramoff scandal currently involves repukes only, but also technically true to say that current Congressional scandals in general are bipartisan. Please be mindful, there is a scandal that's currently unfolding, which does involve one Democratic member of the House. It is not related to the larger Abramoff scandal.

By Allan Lengel
Washington Post Staff Writer
Thursday, January 12, 2006; Page A05

A former aide to Rep. William J. Jefferson (D-La.) pleaded guilty yesterday to bribing the congressman to promote high-tech business ventures in Africa.

Brett M. Pfeffer, 37, of Herndon, a former president of a McLean investment firm, pleaded guilty in U.S. District Court in Alexandria to conspiracy to commit bribery of a public official and aiding and abetting the bribery of a public official in 2004 and 2005.

<snip>

Pfeffer recounted in court how his former Capitol Hill boss, in exchange for using his congressional influence in Africa, demanded a 5 to 7 percent stake in one of two new companies Pfeffer's firm was investing in. The companies were to provide high-speed Internet and cable TV service in Ghana and Nigeria.

Pfeffer said the congressman also demanded that two relatives be put on the businesses' payrolls.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/01/11/AR2006011102282.html

I'm pointing this out so that you will not argue that the Congressional scandals (in general) involve only repukes, only to have this thrown in your face by some right winger. A small distinction, you might say. But it is one that could ruin our fun of rubbing repuke noses in the Abramoff scandal, as well as others.

[redqueen]

36. Who would be so dumb as to say congressional scandals only involve repukes

the 'in general' disclaimer is meaningless. the word 'only' makes it so.

Thanks for posting this, though!

[dogday]

37. The poster was referring to the Abramhoff scandal

only, not all in general. Of course they are bi-partisan but lately there are so many republican scandals, I can't keep up with all of them....

[Lasher]

38. Yes, I'm aware that this message string is about the Abramoff scandal

I was just trying to help arm my comrades for participation in the ongoing word games. The Abramoff scandal is strictly a repuke affair, and I'm making that point at every opportunity. You might have decided to do the same yourself.