You Don't Know Jack
A new, non-partisan study has confirmed what Bloomberg has long been asserting -- donations by Casino Jack's victims, the Indian Tribes, to Democrats suggest he was not, in fact, "directing" money their way:
The analysis shows that when Abramoff took on his tribal clients, the majority of them dramatically ratcheted up donations to Republicans. Meanwhile, donations to Democrats from the same clients either dropped, remained largely static or, in two cases, rose by a far smaller percentage than the ones to Republicans did. This pattern suggests that whatever money went to Democrats, rather than having been steered by Abramoff, may have largely been money the tribes would have given anyway. (my emphasis)Someone should tell Tim Russert, who went on the Today Show this morning and did a Deborah Howell-style non-correction of Katie Couric's gaff yesterday with Howard Dean saying that "Democrats get raging mad when you suggest this is a bipartisan scandal."
Someone should tell Li'l Debbie herself, who in a highly unusual move for an ombudsman sent an email to her fans which said "The Post stands by its reporting that Jack Abramoff directed campaign money to some Democrats."
And here I thought ombudsmaning meant representing readers at the paper rather than hawking the party line.
Maybe that's the source of all my confusion. I'm not fluent in any Scandinavian languages. Who knew the word ombudsman was Swedish for "snake oil salesman?"
(You can leave comments for Li'l Debbie at the Open Letter to the Washington Post Blog)
posted by Jane Hamsher @ 1/27/2006 05:30:00 PM
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