My explanation of the Abramoff scandal to a Republican friend of mine

[rpannier]

We both live in Korea. He's an officer in the military (he's pretty bright) and I work for the Korean government. Today is the Lunar New Year's so our families got together. At lunch he was going on about the Abramoff influencing peddling was on both sides. He agreed that Jack only gave his own money to Dems, but that his clients gave money to both, so both parties were equally guilty.

Here's my explanation to him of the difference:

Me: "Did you donate money to Bush in '04?"
Friend: "Yes"
Me: "Why?"
Friend: "Because Bush believes in what I believe."
Me: "Did you expect him to give you anything personally, like your own special weapon or a promotion
or anything?"
Friend: "No."
Me: "Okay. Then what you're talking about is Harry Reid. He got money from the tribes, but not for
anything specific in return. They gave because they support his ideas. Kinda like Tribal money
McCain gets."
Me(still): "Now, if you had given that money so you'd get promoted, that'd make you Congressmen Ney
and DeLay and Sen Burns."
Friend: "Hmmm. Interesting. I'll have to look at this more closely."

***I also pointed out to him that under Abramoff, the tribal money to Dems got significantly less and
the money to pukes got greater.***

[tenshi816]

1. Jack didn't give his own money to Dems.

You didn't really mean to say that did you?

[diamondsndust]

2. i saw that too....

hope it was a typo!

[rpannier]

4. OMG!!!!

Sorry that was a typo. I meant Jack gave his money to pukes. Sorry about that. Thanks for the correction.

[Ian David]

3. Harry Reid was receiving tribal money before Abramoff represented them.n/t

[ComerPerro]

10. That's a point I always stress, too.

[KharmaTrain]

5. The McCain Line Is Excellent...

of course you'll find wingnuts who hate McCain, but for many in the "middle", that's a great example.

Also, now it's been documented that all of Abramoff's Native American clients gave LESS to Democrats after he worked for them than before. So if anything, that would mean the Democrats are LESS corrupt.

[Vinca]

6. Poor Harry - don't they realize he represents both tribes and

the gambling industry?? Republican scandal, Republican scandal, Republican scandal, Republican scandal, Republican scandal, Republican scandal, Republican scandal, Republican scandal, Republican scandal.

[ayeshahaqqiqa]

7. Excellent argument

phrased in such a way that it had personal meaning to your friend. This is the way we must frame our arguments when talking one on one with people who have been misinformed by the MSM. I hope it is ok if I borrow your argument to use with others.

[rpannier]

9. Of course

Just don't use my embarassing typo.

[ayeshahaqqiqa]

11. It might comfort you to know

that I read your post after you corrected it, so in my mind, that typo never happened. :)

[MrBenchley]

8. Remember, the Tribes are just ONE of the many Abramoff scandals

There's also Sun Cruz and the hit on Gus Boulis, the money from the Russian mob that was funneled to Delay, the money from the Chinese sweatshop owners that went to Delay and the GOP, the Capital sports scam, the educational foundation that basically home schooled his kids at a cost of several millions, etc. etc. etc...

[rpgamerd00d]

12. use this