Absolutely stunning example of how to distort by telling only part of the truth.
DEAN: There are no Democrats who took money from Jack Abramoff, not one, not one single Democrat. Every person named in this scandal is a Republican. Every person under investigation is a Republican. Every person indicted is a Republican. This is a Republican finance scandal. There is no evidence that Jack Abramoff ever gave any Democrat any money. And we've looked through all of those FEC reports to make sure that's true.
Federal campaign records show that about 220 members of Congress received some $1.7 million in political contributions from Abramoff and his associates and clients, including American Indian tribes, between 2001 and 2004. According to Bloomberg news service, 201 of those members are still in Congress; Republicans received 64 percent of that money.
And here is some data. And a piece about a Democrat returning money. Howard mentions this guy, but denies it had anything to do with Abramoff. So why return the money? Accepting money is not illegal, a quid pro quo is. I did do a quick (not exhaustive) search of several Democratic politician's FEC entries. While Howard's flat statement is factual, it is not completely factual since it avoids telling that what he is referring to is direct contributions. This is how spin works. I think this one is an equal opportunity problem. The Dem's might want to abandon this line of attack before they get hauled into their own net. There's just something so Truthy about Howard's statement. (Sorry about the formatting problems – frankly this is not a pretty text editor……)
