Clearly Washington politicians have fashioned a cutting-edge manner of postmillennial redemption with this morning’s widely reported post Abramoff spate of charitable giving sweeping through the grimy, cash-soiled power corridors of Washington.
Never fear that Jack Abramoff’s crimes have been obvious for quite some time, bug-eyed and clammy-handed pols, panicked over unexplained sin, have chosen self-publicized and unexplained charitable “redirection” in recent days over a messier and unpredictable session in a media sob sister’s confessional.
Serious matters like jail time are, still, up in the air.
This allegedly charitable media/political exculpation of tainted cash strikes me as unusual to say the least.
I have sympathy for the charities but shouldn’t the redirected course of stolen money find its way back to the original owner and victim of the crime?
And, shouldn’t some impartial jurist rather than the alleged criminal oversee any return or redirection of stolen property?
Imagine an arrested bank robber saying, “Well, officer, you caught me fair and square. And to prove my good faith I’m going to redirect my stolen loot to an obscure religious charity rather than give it back to the 1st National Bank.”
Yup.
It would be funny were it not so sickening.
Haven’t the Abramoff funds commingled with other funds resting in various politicos’ war chests for quite some time?
Haven’t portions been spent?
Can tainted cash be so easily extracted from larger pools of lucre?
Didn’t Mr. Abramoff himself describe his bribery as "a stream of things of value” including non-monetized free meals, free tickets to events and free travel?
Can Indian tribes people look forward to evenings of fine dining and travel since politicians seem not to be redirecting their stolen cash back to their victimized selves?

Locally, the Abramoff/Delay imbroglio has deeply stained the fabric of our Christian conservative representatives as yesterday’s post on Congressman Geoff Davis showed.
This morning’s papers bring news of Mitch McConnell’s $18,500 transgressions and Jim Bunning’s laughable $1,000 bribe direct from the hand of Jack Abramoff.
Other republican Kentucky pols and organizations include:
Governor Ernie Fltcher-$1,000
5th District Congressman Hal Rogers- $32,000
4th District Congressman Geoff Davis-$30,000
State Republican Party-$10,000

Modified Image: Google
- posted by Sean @ 10:48 AM