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January 21, 2006
Indians Equally Guilty
Cynical Dan writes, "I seem to be the only one who has noticed that there is another side to the Abramoff scandal that is being completely overlooked. If we are considering the "campaign contributions" of the various Indian tribes as bribes in disguise, paid with the expectation of favorable legislation on tribal gaming, then why are the Indians not equally guilty? If what Abramoff did is take the money and then double cross the tribes by not passing it on to the crooked legislators, or if the legislators took the money but did not do what the tribes wanted, then the tribes are still guilty of attempted bribery. If Abramoff kept some of the money for himself, he would still not be guilty of fraud, since a contract to commit an illegal act (bribery) is not enforceable.
However, because the Indians are a sacred cow in our culture, you will never see Abramoff or any legislators charged with bribery in this case, since it takes two sides for a bribe to occur. What you will see are indirect charges, like lying to the government, not reporting income, and falsifying financial documents.
The bribes disguised as campaign contributions will continue to flow, regardless of the various "reforms" being suggested. All they will do is require a better disguise. All polititians take bribes, and the Indians are only one of many different bribers.
Posted by Post Scripts at January 21, 2006 02:58 PM
Comments
I could be wrong, but I think the focus with this Abramhoff scandal is that he violated disclosure laws and dollar limits surrounding campaign finance regulated by the Federal Election Commission. How that pertains to the indian casino's is yet to be determined, but they have a scape goat with Abramhoff and can say they were just victims too.
The investigation is still ongoing all the concerns have yet to come to the surface, so they (indians) may eventually have criminal problem too.
As a passing thought....I've known that such bribes given as contributions are often the real motivation for special interest legislation for years, but nobody in elected office seemed to care much about my "petty" concerns, until now. Now a lot of rats are running for cover! lol
Posted by: Equally Cynical Jack at January 21, 2006 03:09 PM