06 January 2006

John Boehner: Big Fish in a Dirty Pond

John Boehner is part of Abramoff's web of corruption.

John Boehner might be the next Majority Leader.

John Boehner will still be part of the problem.

4 comments:

VikingSpirit said...

Plenty of Democrats have gotten Abramoff connected money too...it's not just Republicans.

If a campaign contribution makes Boehner part of Abramoff's web of corruption, then alot of Democrats are in Abramoff's web of corruption.

WestEnder said...

Yes, I know the GOP is pushing that talking point very hard to try to avoid blame. But the facts are that

1)Abramoff was a staunch Republican himself;

2)the overwhelming majority of his operations were Republican-associated;

3)The overwhelming majority of members of Congress implicated are Republican.

If the Dems were equally to blame I would have no problem saying that. And I've stated that the problem is systemic, not partisan. But the plain truth is that the GOP is corrupt and that's a big reason why it's in power.

That's illegitimate and unacceptable. Doesn't matter which party.

By the way, your comment is a perfect example of a symptom of groupthink (the Republican shibboleth). Instead of directly addressing the issue of the post (Boehner is part of the systemic problem), you give a "I know I am but what are you" response.

I see it every day in ignoring criticism of Bush by bringing up Clinton.

Wes said...

Oy.

Here's the deal. Let's say WestEnder is a tribe, I'm a Democratic Congressman, and Viking Spirit is a Republican Congressman. WestEnder gives both of us money (feel free to do that, by the way) after hiring Jack Abramoff. Jack Abramoff doesn't give me any money, but he gives Viking Spirit money. Now, perhaps Abramoff suggested to WestEnder that I should get some cash, but none of it was his.

Abramoff has not given a dime to any Democrats. Tribes who hired him HAVE given money. If someone gives money to two people and later finds that one of them has gotten dirty money from someone the original person hired, that doesn't make the second person (who got no dirty money) guilty of anything.

There are copious amounts throughout history of corruption on both sides. This ain't one of 'em.

WF

WestEnder said...

Furthermore, the Democrats who got money from tribes are from states with considerable native American populations (ND, e.g.), whereas the Republicans got money regardless (Bob Ney, e.g.).

WF is right; if this was a truly bipartisan scandal, we'd have no problem calling it that way. I personally don't care who did it or what party they belong to. Anybody who takes a dump on what the Founding Fathers did for this country deserves ass whooping and nothing else.