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Politics : I Will Continue to Continue, to Pretend.... -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: Sully- who wrote (10324)	5/14/2005 2:36:09 PM
From: Sully-	Respond to of 35834

Something I didn't know about Tom DeLay (Update) Power Line JOHN adds: That's a great story. But there are certain categories of news that are subject to a strict boycott--like anything that reflects favorably on the House Majority Leader. David Klinghoffer has a column in the Forward about the attack on Delay and the lobbyist Jack Abramoff that, I think, relates in an interesting way to the story about Delay that Deacon posted. Klinghoffer's piece is worth reading in its entirety, but here are some excerpts: <<< One Associated Press report honestly admitted, "A shorthand summary of Abramoff's alleged dealings tends not to sound too shocking: collecting big checks from American Indian tribes for whom he performed limited work; steering clients' contributions to outside groups in which he had a personal interest; sending politicians on junkets to curry favor." How mundane Abramoff's activities really are becomes clear when you consider that, as the conservative magazine National Review's Rich Lowry notes: "House rules prohibit travel funded by lobbyists. That would be unconscionable. But they permit travel funded by corporations, trade associations and nonprofits, with lobbyists allowed to accompany lawmakers for the trip.... Golly. It almost appears as if Congress has created a system with an enormous loophole to satisfy its members' lust for all-expense-paid luxe travel." Abramoff, it seems, was not careful about respecting the finer points of the loophole. Yet this unshocking litany has driven some in media and political circles to excesses of their own: predictions that the damage caused to DeLay could spark antisemitism and torpedo the alliance of conservative Jews and Christians. In a spirit of honesty, however, I admit that I'd like to see Abramoff left alone in large part because, instead of spending the millions of dollars he raked in on Ferraris and yachts, he lavishly spent it on causes that I think are good and important: an Orthodox high school he founded in the Washington, D.C., area, headed by a rabbi whose taped lectures I have long listened to with admiration; kosher restaurants (that lost a fortune but provided a public service); political organizations and candidates whose conservative philosophy I share, and so on. Yes, I have a conflict of interest - and such conflicts, arising from one's political or moral value system, can be more powerful than conflicts that arise from the scent of money. I wish Abramoff's tormentors would be similarly honest. Let them admit their own wish to see the political consequences of the Abramoff affair that they, simulating disinterest, now predict - like, for example, the implosion of the Jewish-Christian alliance and the fall of Tom DeLay. In considering the unfolding of Abramoff's fate, it's hard to avoid the conclusion that he has been singled out because, as a Washington Post writer with a Jewish name snidely said of him, he is "an Orthodox Jew who seemed to flaunt his piety (the Christian right loved it) the way other lobbyists flash their Rolexes." Another Jew who delighted in Abramoff's downfall, Frank Rich of The New York Times, referred to this "Orthodox Jew who in his salad days wore a yarmulke to press interviews." If Abramoff were a secular Jew who directed streams of money to left-wing candidates, to liberal think tanks, to charitable causes like Planned Parenthood and PETA, do you think we ever would have heard his name? I don't. >>> powerlineblog.com forward.com