The sweet sound of an evil plan running aground.
I'll start by stating one thing: I'm certain that Jack Abramoff has contributed money to a Democratic senator or two. He's a Republican, after all, and his main motivations are to become powerful, loot the country, and leave it a smoking ruin, and the Democratic Party is a font of congresspeople who are eager to slit their own throats over the illusion of a "bipartisan" encounter with the Evil Party.
But, be that as it may, it's fairly interesting that of the hundreds of payoffs that Abramoff has personally made, not one of them went to a Democrat. And for that you can thank the so-called "K street project" that Abramoff, Delay, and Grover Norquist made up to ensure that all the other lobbying firms would become obedient vassals of the Evil Party. Because if you're going to be putting the hammer down on a lobbying firm for being polite to a Democrat, you can't have the lobbying firm that designed the plan handing money to the Tom Daschle reelection fund (no, I'm not claiming that Jack Abramoff contributed money to Tom Daschle's campaign. He should have, but these are Republicans and revenge is one thing that cannot resist, even if it means that a milquetoast like Tom Daschle gets turfed out and replaced by someone like Harry Reid) unless you really want to be laughed at.
So, when the Evil Plan™ founders under the weight of too much corruption too soon (hiring design contractors who just happen to be Mafia hitmen and who just happen to assassinate a former competitor who's been having slanging matches with you may have just been an unlucky set of coincidences, but it's a really stupid set of unlucky coincidences that can't help but attract unwelcome attention from the sort of people who are difficult to bribe), all you're left with is a paper trail showing hundreds of thousands (possibly even millions) of dollars going directly to Evil Party members starting with Maximum Leader Genius and working on down to the local dogcatcher on the take, and maybe a dozen or so contributions to Democrats that come from a company that does business with a foundation that paid off one of your PACs for services rendered.
And then it looks like what David Brooks said (Times Select link, so it costs money. Sorry!): "That's a great G.O.P. talking point: some Democrats are so sleazy, they get involved with the likes of us."
Great plan, Jack, Tom, and Grover. You were so eager to get into the henhouse that you didn't manage to replace all the farmers with foxes before you started looting. And King Genius might think that it's beneath his dignity to pardon the lot of you.
Comments
The occasionally had other messages, but the curse of the Stupid Party is that they’re in thrall to a collection of labelling specialists and campaign consultants, and every time a different message came up it was immediately stomped down by the consultants.
Personally, I would have settled for a “torture is inhuman and the United States doesn’t do that sort of crap” message, but I guess that simple decency doesn’t poll well with the focus groups.
If the Dems really want to win this time around, they would send someone with a heavy grudge to visit Bob-I-Lose-Presidential-Campaigns-For-Big-Money Shrum and make sure he doesn’t get in the way again.
Howard Dean, bless his black little heart, shot down Wolf Blitzer’s attempt at parroting the Karl Rove propaganda line by pointing out not one Dem had gotten Abramoff bucks, and when Puppy tried the Dorgan line, Dean asked Blitzer if he really thought Indian tribes were a part of Abramoff’s crew. 15 seconds of dead air ensued. If the Stupid Party listens to Howie, they might even risk not being Stupid any more. Quel concept.
That would be nice, but after 2004 I’m sceptical if the party establishment would even allow that. Because Howard is Mean! And Rude! And he doesn’t play nice with Republicans!
I did like the interview with Blitzer. I laughed and laughed when Wolf just sat there looking like a deer in the headlights before the voices in his ear told him to cut the interview and proceed to something – anything! – else.
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The democrats need one thing in 2008: come up with some sort of message. A message with actual content and meaning. The only message they had in 2004 was “We’re not Bush”… that’s not a real message.