In the discussion about the Abramoff scandal, people have mentioned the K-Street Project’s goals of funneling money to Republican candidates and providing golden parachutes for ex-GOP congressmen and their staffers, but amid the outrage about media outlets repeatedly making the false claim that this is a bipartisan scandal one important point is being missed. The key point of the K-Street Project wasn’t just its boosting of Republicans, but its insistence that Democrats not be allowed to share in the spoils. In short, this is a Republican scandal because the GOP insisted that Democrats not be allowed to sit at the grownup’s table. That’s not to say that Democrats are above corruption by any means, just that in this case the Republicans went out of their way to ensure that these avenues to bribery were only available to Republicans.
BY TOM TOMORROW