Abramoff Is Not Just A GOP Scandal

The LATimes headline today reads:

GOP Tries to Outrun Scandal

And the lead builds on the theme that the Abramoff scandal is a Republican problem:

From the White House to Capitol Hill, prominent Republicans scrambled Wednesday to shed campaign contributions linked to disgraced lobbyist Jack Abramoff, as his guilty pleas in fraud and corruption cases opened a painful debate within the party over its leadership and direction.

That Abramoff was a GOP lobbyist goes without saying. It's even clear that GOP electeds got more moola from him than Dems -- but you'd expect that in an era when the GOP controls the White House and both houses of Congress.

And besides, the Dems were all too happy to take what they could get from Abramoff.

Even so, the LAT, like most media, is working hard to make this a GOP scandal. Its story today rambles on for seven paragraphs until you get to this:

Although some Democrats received Abramoff-linked contributions and favors, the lobbyist — a Republican activist since college — spent most of his time and money helping the GOP.

Most? Hardly! You won't find proof of "most" in the LAT story, but its easy to disprove it by going to any campaign finance site. OpenSecrets.org, for example, lays it out clearly in its lead story:

Republicans: $2,912,088
Democrats: $1,541,673

LAT never ran the totals; instead, they ran long lists of campaign contributions being returned. The largest, $150,000, was an Abramoff contgribution to a Rep, Conrad Burns. The two next biggest recipients were Dems, Byron Dorgan with $67,000, and Harry Reid, with $60,000.

Reid, unlike all the others who are scrambling to give their Abramoff money to charities, he has refused to part with his.

A public spirited media would have no reason to emphasize partisanship in this story. The story stinks to its core and shows that Dem and Rep alike are rotten with the rot that comes with big government.

A public spirited media should be calling for reform, not GOP heads.

But we no longer have a public spirited media in the USA.