Abramoff: Firing Blanks?
Power Line
With hindsight, the Jack Abramoff "scandal" was one of the major factors that cost Republicans control of Congress. Still, no one seems to know what the "scandal" consists of. Press reports would make sense if you assume that it is illegal to contribute money to candidates you support; otherwise not. Have Abramoff's purported "revelations" actually yielded evidence against anyone? Possibly Bob Ney; I'm not sure whether the offense he pled guilty to was Abramoff-related or not. Otherwise, as far as I know, nobody.
Lots of people, including the excellent Gateway Pundit, are now buzzing about the report--anonymous, of course--that Abramoff has provided information on "six to eight seriously corrupt Democratic Senators." Well, maybe. But the definition of "corruption" that seems to be operative here is that A) someone contributed money to a Congressman's or Senator's campaign, and B) the Congressman or Senator subsequently did something that person approved of. This isn't corruption, it's democracy.
Whether Abramoff has anything more to say is, at this point, completely unknown. For my part, I'm skeptical. Remember that Abramoff got caught trying to defraud a partner out of many millions of dollars in a business deal involving a gambling boat. The prosecutors had him dead to rights. This, of course, had nothing to do with Congress. So what did Abramoff do? He told the prosecutors that he had hot evidence against lots of Congressmen. I suspect that what is going on here is similar to the John Karr case. Faced with going to prison in Thailand for child molestation--an unpleasant prospect--he hit upon the brilliant scheme of announcing that he was guilty of the JonBenet Ramsey murder. He wasn't, but the claim got him extradited to the United States, where, as far as I know, he now resides.
Abramoff might have something on someone. But I'll have to see the goods before I jump on the bandwagon.
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