Abramoff-- Four More Years

A subtext here at DWT for a few years now is that there's something irrational about sending bribers to jail and leaving bribees free. The good news today is that one-time Republican Culture of Corruption kingpin Jack Abramoff has been sentenced to another 48 months in jail. The bad news-- apart from it not being 48 years and Bush's ability to pardon him in less than 4 months-- is that over 40 Republican members of Congress were taking large amounts of bribes from Abramoff. Why aren't they going to prison too?

OK, let's leave out the Senate. We already know why none of them are going to prison. McCain's "investigation"/whitewash was meant to protect his Senate colleagues-- which is what he promised and is exactly what he did. McCain likes claiming how he "investigated" the horrid Abramoff and helped bring him down. While it's true that he did use his position as chairman of the Senate Indian Affairs Committee to grandstand and beat his chest and hype up his fraudulent image as a reformer (the same way he's claiming to be all about peace tonight at the HateFest), he did keep a promise to his corrupt fellow senators:

Democrats seem to have mistakenly assumed that committee Chairman John McCain would do their partisan work for them. In fact, the Arizona “maverick,” eyeing an '08 presidential run, has made it abundantly clear that his committee's investigation will not touch Republican lawmakers, assuring Senate colleagues of as much in a widely reported meeting in March. With money from Abramoff's Indian clients having been connected not only to DeLay but also to Congressman Bob Ney and Senators Conrad Burns and Mark Vitter, such a self-imposed restriction “obviously makes for a pretty huge hole in the investigation,” according to Naomi Seligman of Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington (CREW).

And, sure enough, the June 22 hearing (focusing on the Mississippi Choctaw tribe) aired plenty of fun details about Abramoff and Scanlon's various shenanigans, particularly their use of myriad front groups to launder casino money. But barely a lawmaker's name was mentioned in three and a half hours of testimony and questioning. Indeed, in his apparent efforts to dampen the political explosiveness of the hearing, McCain went further than merely ignoring the role of sitting lawmakers in the saga; he neglected in the end to require that high-level GOP operatives Ralph Reed and Grover Norquist, both of whom had been subpoenaed by the committee, actually appear and give testimony at the hearing.

But what about the House? McCain wasn't protecting House members. DeLay, Abramoff's boss, is still not in prison. Nor are dozens of congressman who Abramoff was buying off for years-- John Doolittle (R-CA), Virgil Goode (R-VA), Dana Rohrabacher (R-CA), Scott Garrett (R-NJ), Eric Cantor (R-VA), Richard Pombo (R-CA), Roy Blunt (R-MO), Tom Feeney. Ken Calvert (R-CA), Jerry Lewis (R-CA), Don Young (R-AK), Phil English (R-PA), Heather Wilson (R-NM), Mike Rogers (R-MI), Jim Gerlach (R-PA), Robin Hayes (R-NC). Marilyn Musgrave (R-CO)... so many others. All is forgiven? All is forgotten?

Earlier today, we saw Joe Biden talking about restoring actual Justice once Bush and his cronies are out of the White House. They shouldn't just stop at the Executive Branch. I was heartened to see the campaigns of several of the Democrats running for House seats remind voters today about their opponents connections to Abramoff. Debbie Cook was the first I heard from. “Rohrabacher's ongoing relationship with Jack Abramoff and his willingness to excuse his crimes," she wrote, "even now, as Abramoff is sentenced for bribery, speaks volumes about the Congressman's judgment and his Washington D.C. mindset."

Dennis Shulman is running against one of the most corrupt men in Congress, Scott Garrett, who takes money from every special interest looking for support. He's been a cancer on the political ethics of the state of New Jersey. Dennis got straight to the point today:

Garrett took an illegal overseas junket arranged by an Abramoff crony and received campaign contributions from Abramoff's law firm which he never returned. Moreover, Garrett furthered Washington's corrupt special interest culture by opposing an Ethics Committee investigation into the Abramoff scandal and voting to weaken restrictions on lobbyists.

Be it placing a key Countrywide Financial lobbyist on the taxpayer's payroll as his Chief of Staff, taking loyally fighting for tax breaks for Big Oil, or holding onto money from indicted Alaskan Senator Ted Stevens, convicted lobbyist Jack Abramoff, and disgraced former McCain adviser Phil Gramm, Garrett seems to play a role in every Washington scandal. It's about time we have a member of Congress who sees his job as fighting scandals, not participating in them.

Last night Sarah Palin's vicious harsh and hate-filled speech-- put in her very willing mouth by the same ideological misfits that have been running the GOP for two decades-- generated a great deal of money, almost a million dollars for John McCain-- and over ten million for Barack Obama. Think about the entire Republican Culture of Corruption... and think about how easily equally corrupt Democrats like Rahm Emanuel, Debbie Wasserman Schultz, Steny Hoyer could turn it into a Democratic Culture of Corruption. That's why it is so important to election Democrats who don't play those games, Democrats like Debbie Cook and Dennis Shulman-- as well as seven other progressives who are part of the Blue America competition this week. So far we've raised them over $24,000 since Saturday. We have two days to go. Vote for your favorite Democrat or Democrats and, remember, your one dollar or ten dollar donation could win one of these worthy candidates $5,000. Let's celebrate McCain's horrible speech and Abramoff's sentencing with a good solid hand for some great Democratic candidates. And, by the way, a generous donor has offered Blue America PAC another $1,250 for a second check-- kind of a runner up prize-- if we can raise enough money in the PAC to match it. So... please think about donating to the PAC as well. That way on Saturday we'll be awarding a $5,000 check to whomever gets the most votes and a $2,500 to whomever comes in second.