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Back in January, the comic strip "Prickly City" ran some strips criticizing Democrats for accepting money from Jack Abramoff. Pissed off, I wrote an e-mail to the author, not expecting a reply....but I got one.
First is the reply, the second half is my original e-mail. I was taken aback by this guy's level-headedness. I do not agree with what he has to say, obviously, but the mere fact that he didn't sling insults at me and dismiss everything I wrote outright was encouraging.
Read on, readers:
Thank you so much for writing us. In the January 26th Prickly City strip addresses the incident in which Howard Dean denied that Democrats took money that originated with Jack Abramoff. The following is taken from the transcripts of CNN Late Edition with Wolf Blitzer for the January 8, 2006 show:
"BLITZER: But through various Abramoff-related organizations and outfits, a bunch of Democrats did take money that presumably originated with Jack Abramoff.
DEAN: That's not true either. There's no evidence for that either. There is no evidence..."
Untrue. While he did not personally give money to Democrats, he did direct money to them. The Capital Eye lists the lobbying and political contributions of Jack Abramoff which includes Democrats ( www.capitaleye.org/abramoff_recips.asp?sort=N). The Associated Press reports that Senate Democratic Leader Harry Reid did assist Abramoff clients (see www.breitbart.com/news/2006/02/09/D8FLPHO80.html).
This is overwhelmingly a Republican scandal, but the Democrats are not pristine either. However my main intent was a criticism of Dr. Dean.
While I am a conservative, I want a viable Democratic Party. Reasoned debate is important and good for the country. To be frank, right now the Republicans have so much control that they have become arrogant and are not acting like true conservatives. They need a viable opposition to force them to act like conservatives. Unfortunately, I do not believe Howard Dean is the person to lead the Democratic Party into the future. Of course, you are free to disagree, that is simply my opinion.
We found what you had to say of special interest. So much so that we are adding it to the list of e-mails we are considering for inclusion in the Prickly City Podcast. There's a new one posted every week at www.pricklycity.com. Give it a listen and you may hear us discuss your e-mail.
You may also be interested to know that the first collection of Prickly City is now available through www.Amazon.com .
Thank you again for taking the time to write.
Please continue to read and enjoy Prickly City.
Scott Stantis
On 1/26/06, RandomKoolzip wrote:
Many republican pols accepted money DIRECTLY from
Abramoff.
Some democrats accepted money from Indian tribes. Most
of the Indian tribes gave Dems money BEFORE their
association with Abramoff. After Abramoff began
"working" with those tribes, the tenor of their
donations changed; more of those tribes began
funnelling money to right-wing politicians. NO
DEMOCRAT RECEIVED MONEY DIRECTLY FROM JACK ABRAMOFF.
I know it's awfully convienient to claim that the
Abramoff scandal is a bipartisan phenomenon, but it's
untruthful to do so, and unhealthy for a number of
reasons, the least of which is that it contradicts the
old rule that 'Two wrongs don't make a right." The
right seems to think that if BOTH parties can be
implicated in wrongdoing, then it isn't wrongdoing
anymore. You see this time and time again when the
right is confronted with accusations of malfeasance.
Instead of vowing to do better, they stamp their feet
and yell, "hey, the other kids do it too!"
Here's a quote from the Philadelphia Enquirer:
'Abramoff was a rich kid from Beverly Hills when he
took over the College Republicans in 1981, aided by
two friends: Grover Norquist (now one of the most
influential conservatives in Washington) and Ralph
Reed (later the face of the Christian Coalition, now
running for Georgia lieutenant governor). In 1983,
Abramoff explained his views: "It is not our job to
seek peaceful coexistence with the left. Our job is to
remove them from power permanently."'
Read those last two sentences again and tell me that
this is a bipartisan scandal. Why would Ambramoff give
money to the very group he sought to extinguish? It
wouldn't make sense.
Please do the decent thing: do some more research and
issue an apology. After all, your strip is actually
pretty funny when it's not telling half-truths about
Democrats.
Thanks
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