Sunday, September 28, 2008

Whad'dya mean "we," Kemosabe?



It's easy to be a reformer - as John McCain brags - putting scoundrels in prison. Jack Abramoff may be the most famous of crooked lobbyists to risk the wrath of McCain. But as the New York Times points out this morning, in eliminating Abramoff, McCain actually provided benefit to tribal lobbyists who had supported his campaigns.

It isn't a gamble to go against your own party, if, in the end, you benefit personally.

The Times article begins with an anecdote of a winning night at the tables that McCain had right here in Connecticut (actually on sovereign Pequot nation property). Seems like, on that night, he was very lucky. Isn't it a cliche that one way of siphoning unregulated donations to a politician is to let him win at the poker table?

I guess the odds were with him. And he didn't have to ride the Fung Wah bus home.

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