Howard Dean Rips Wolf Blitzer a New One
From the CNN transcript, via Atrios:BLITZER: Should Democrats who took money from Jack Abramoff, who has now pleaded guilty to bribery charges, among other charges, a Republican lobbyist in Washington, should the Democrat who took money from him give that money to charity or give it back?
DEAN: There are no Democrats who took money from Jack Abramoff, not one, not one single Democrat. Every person named in this scandal is a Republican. Every person under investigation is a Republican. Every person indicted is a Republican. This is a Republican finance scandal. There is no evidence that Jack Abramoff ever gave any Democrat any money. And we've looked through all of those FEC reports to make sure that's true.
BLITZER: But through various Abramoff-related organizations and outfits, a bunch of Democrats did take money that presumably originated with Jack Abramoff.
DEAN: That's not true either. There's no evidence for that either. There is no evidence...
BLITZER: What about Senator Byron Dorgan?
DEAN: Senator Byron Dorgan and some others took money from Indian tribes. They're not agents of Jack Abramoff. There's no evidence that I've seen that Jack Abramoff directed any contributions to Democrats. I know the Republican National Committee would like to get the Democrats involved in this. They're scared. They should be scared. They haven't told the truth. They have misled the American people. And now it appears they're stealing from Indian tribes. The Democrats are not involved in this.
BLITZER: Unfortunately Mr. Chairman, we got to leave it right there.
Howard Dean, the chairman of the Democratic Party, always speaking out bluntly, candidly.
As Atrios pointed out, the transcriptionist left out the big fish-out-of-water sigh that Wolfie let out before he ended. There's also a link to the video - well worth it!
Go read the whole thing, where he also takes Lieberman to task for being a Democrat-in-name-only. (Who thinks JoeMentum might the the token Dem on the podium of the RNC in 2008?)
4 Comments:
Capitaleye.org had a list of recipients that made it look as if this were a two-party scandal; unfortunately, it listed "political contributions from Abramoff, the tribes that hired him, and SunCruz Casinos, since 1999," which makes it a little harder to figure out who's doing what for what reason.
Has a Democrat yet been found who got cash from Abramoff?
http://www.capitaleye.org/abramoff_recips.asp?sort=R
Sorry, my link didn't work.
The Center for Responsive Politics is still reporting (via OpenSecrets.org) that NO (zero, none, nada) Democrats took money directly from Abramoff. Careful reading of the Republican talking points being parrotted by the MSM is the Dems received money from Abramoff, "his associates, and Indian tribe clients". Why is that difference crucial? Even though a lot of Congresscritters of both parties are returning money like it's burning holes in their fingers, many (maybe most) of those donations were perfectly legal. It's the bribery bit that makes it illegal (and why it's of interest whether the money came directly from Abramoff - clearer connection).
Thanks, TP--that's a helpful summary.
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