Thursday, January 12, 2006

The Law Of Improbable Dispersal

One of the many laws attributed to Murphy is the Law Of Improbable Dispersal. It stated that whatever hits the fan will not be evenly distributed. It's hard to not think of this as I watch the Republicans trying to smear Democrats with the Abramoff brush.

There are probably a few Dems out there who have been dining at Abramoff's trough and they need to go down if that's true. However we miss the point if we think all that money that Jack slopped around was distributed evenly.

It's becoming increasingly clear that a lot of politicians and political organizations saw some cash from one of the entities created by Abramoff. After all, that's what lobbyists do. What they shouldn't be doing is creating a skewed system which delivers government to the highest bidder. Abramoff's web of shell corporations and consultancies was put together to further the Republican cause, pure and simple.

Now that DeLay's influence is on the wane the corporation founded by his staffers to garner his influence is closing its doors. The duplicity of Ralph Reed is becoming clearer and his candidacy in Georgia is headed the same way.

The fact that money with the stink of scandal shows up in many campaign chests doesn't surprise anyone. The question is, "How did it get there?" Did a strong lobbying organization make a donation as part of their covering enterprise or did someone chase after it, slavering like a staffer after Wizard's tickets?

We can't let the "Everyone does it" crowd control this discussion. Everyone does not do it and we'll need to build on the strengths of the ones who did not seek Abramoff's advantages in either party if we're going to come out of this with a stronger democracy.

The difference between involvement and commitment is the difference between ham and eggs. The hen is involved. The hog is committed. There are a lot of committed Republicans in this mess.

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