Howard Dean Implicates Harry Reid in Abramoff Scandal

Specifically, Dean said to Chris Wallace on Fox News Sunday that if any Democrat interceded with anyone on behalf of one of Jack Abramoff's clients, then such a Democrat would be in trouble. He evidently did not know that Senator Harry Reid (D-NV) has done just that.

Part of the confusion about Jack Abramoff's activities is that the man had two different modi operandi for buying favors from Republicans or Democrats. If it was a Republican, Abramoff wrote a check payable to that Republican's campaign fund. But if it was a Democrat, Abramoff would launder the money by first writing a check to one of his clients and then telling the client to write a check for the same amount of money to that person's campaign fund. Why the difference? You'd have to ask him. My guess is that he didn't want Republicans seeing him write checks to Democrats.

And that's how he paid off Harry Reid to intercede for one of his clients: by paying the client and telling the client to pay Reid. Somebody needs to remind Howard Dean of the proverb-comprehension test that doctors routinely give to patients suspected of not being entirely with it. One such tested proverb says, "People who live in glass houses shouldn't throw stones."

While I'm on the subject: about those pictures with Abramoff and the President? He got the picture by paying an amount of money that entitled him to stand in a receiving line with the President and have his photo shot when he got to the President. So as far as the President could know, Jack Abramoff was just another ten-thousand-dollar face-in-the-crowd. That hardly rises to the level of a Lincoln Bedroom overnight guest. Add to it that every such picture has come from Abramoff, who evidently is trying to peddle them for whatever royalty he can wring out of somebody.