Getting It First

If you were out and about over the weekend, you may have missed my piece about the attempted Swift-Boating of Jack Murtha over the Purple Hearts he won in Vietnam.

The New Republic agrees with National Review that the Abramoff mess belongs in the GOP's corner:

"Republicans have retreated to a second line of defense--namely, construing the scandal as broadly as possible. The problem shouldn't be confined to those members of Congress and staffers with whom Abramoff had a close relationship. It should be expanded to include everybody who received money from anyone who ever dealt with Abramoff. Suddenly, what do you know: It's a bipartisan scandal! As President Bush put it last month, Abramoff 'was an equal money dispenser . . . [H]e was giving money to people in both political parties.'

"Unfortunately, this second line of defense has taken root in the news media, which is always eager, in the spirit of evenhandedness, to attribute equal blame for any problem to both parties. A couple of examples provide the flavor of such coverage. The Washington Post reported last month that, while 'Democrats are hoping to capitalize on Republican ethical woes,' prominent Democrats 'were among beneficiaries of the largest campaign contributions from Abramoff's associates and clients.' Dan Abrams of MSNBC asked, 'It does seem most of his connections were to Republicans, but there are some Democrats who've had connections with him as well, right?'

"The hilarity of this is that, before he became a figure of disgrace, nobody who knew the faintest thing about Abramoff wondered about his partisan affiliation. Abramoff came into politics alongside GOP operatives like Ralph Reed and Grover Norquist in the College Republicans, and he shared their total-war mentality . . . Abramoff thrived precisely because he recognized something that the Washington press corps still seems unable to: that the Republican Party's alliance with K Street made it deeply and thoroughly corruptible."

Not to mention that Black Hat Jack served on Bush's transition team.

Speaking of Abramoff, what an embarrassment for the magazine biz. Slate's Tim Noah explains:

"Imagine, for a moment, that you are the Magazine Publishers of America. You want to fight a planned increase in postal rates that would hurt business by raising your fixed costs. You hire the lobby firm Preston Gates, among whose most valuable assets is an influence-peddling wunderkind named Jack Abramoff. As part of a multipronged strategy, Abramoff decides that $25,000 might help persuade a high-ranking aide to House Majority Leader Tom DeLay named Tony Rudy to help stop the postal rate increase. Simply to hand Rudy $25,000 in cash would be a tad obvious, so Abramoff decides to pay Rudy's wife Lisa. The question then becomes: What pretext can be found for paying Lisa the money? . . .

"This is Abramoff's specialty. He has relationships with many philanthropic organizations that boil down to this: I will bankroll you if you will launder my bribes . . .

"Abramoff bundles the payment from the Magazine Publishers of America with another payment from a company seeking state contracts to run online lotteries; he gives the money to Toward Tradition; and Toward Tradition, on Abramoff's 'recommendation,' hires Lisa Rudy to plan some event. Everybody wins."

Read the whole thing.

Michael O'Hare at Reality-Based Community offers this pronouncement on Sam Alito: