Abramoff in Perspective: Countertops, Union Dues and the Ghost of Walter Duranty

I'll grant that the long anticipated fall of Jack Abramoff is a significant story. Google finds 1185 recent news stories. Technorati cites 18,053 blog posts. The phrase "Abramoff scandal" finds 147,000 links. Take off the quotes and it's 688,000. Big story.

A Washington insider friend notes coolly that yes, more Republicans will probably get sucked up in it than Democrats. Ooh! Really big story!! A blood-in-the-water feeding-frenzy, maybe we'll get famous like Woodward and Bernstein and regain prestige for a biased and declining mainstream media establishment on the ropes while influencing the course of politics and rendering Bush politically impotent! kind of story.

Which is all fine insofar as it goes. It's the lead story this week. Got it.

What puzzles me however (FYI, that would be the cynical, snarky use of the word 'puzzles') is why a breaking story about the NEA spending over $90M - most of it derived from member dues - on a possibly illegal, probably unethical and certainly questionable grab-bag of lobbying efforts and other purely partisan liberal causes with little or no connection to education barely gets a mention. "NEA scandal" nets zero news stories on Google. Zero.

OK, so that's only $33.52 per member (2.7 million of 'em), that's diverted to radical left-wing causes (or $29.00 per member if we want to do the math differently to be a little more generous). And yes, whether you endorse them or not, many if not most of those causes are 'radical' in the sense of being well out of the mainstream. The term cannot be applied exclusively to the rightward end of the political spectrum and retain its meaning.

If we assume (again, being generous) that nationwide, somewhere between 20% and 40% of teachers are Republicans (or conservatives, or Bush voters, or however you wish to slice and dice it), then that's somewhere between $15.7M and $36.2M effectively extorted from a captive audience of individuals to support causes that they oppose.

To put that in perspective, it is rumored that Jack Abramoff will be asked to pay $25M in restitution. I.e., to give back what he got. Once. Total. Not $16M-$36M year after year after year like the NEA. (Remember, non-liberal teachers are just trying to keep their jobs. It's not as easy as saying: "Not today, thanks. I don't think I'm going to pay my union dues," or "Is it OK with you if I deduct thirty bucks this year because I really don't like what you stand for?") Teachers who vote Republican don't have a choice. That's unfair. That's a racket. That might be racketeering.

But we don't get graphics like this (see right) - that PBS' NewsHour is using for its Abramoff story - for NEA president Reg Weaver. Baad Jack. Reg who?

Meanwhile, where's the outrage (much less significant press coverage) of Louisana's Democratic Governor Kathleen Blanco deciding after hurricane Katrina to renovate her office with "flat screen televisions, Swedish granite countertops, walnut paneling and frosted laminated glass..." to the tune of $564,838? Two media stories (Fox News, picking up on an original story in the Baton Rouge Advocate). A very small handful of blog posts.

Hello!! People are still in shelters. Lots of people. Blanco's Louisiana is cutting back its budget. Significantly: 20% of employees may be laid off. Unemployment in New Orleans is at an all time high. The state is one of the largest recipients of federal largesse since FDR. And we get... granite countertops and a lame excuse? (Blanco is saying the project must go ahead lest the state get sued. We're protecting the people!)

The stories are there. The facts are there. These are just two of them. And yet one story (somber-looking, well-dressed, highly successful lobbyist - wearing a black hat and looking Gotti-esque no less!) is the story. Even though it's been known inside the Beltway for months if not years that Abramoff was eventually going to get slammed.

Lots of politicians are going to go down with Abramoff. The partisan split may be 50/50. It may be as high as 70/30 (R/D). I tend to believe it will be more like 60/40. But even with numbers like those, in the MSM it will be a Republican scandal. There is no such thing as a Democratic scandal. It does not compute. With noble intentions, there can only be excusable lapses in judgment (e.g.., Clinton).

McCain-Feingold somehow implanted in the popular mind (and unfortunately also the law) the misguided notion that we could get money out of politics and that political speech can and should be 'managed'. Not only is that impossible, it's dangerous - an avenue for yet more manipulation, further behind the scenes.

The best we can do is transparency. And thank goodness we're finally getting some of that from the unions - through clenched teeth. Let's do the same for all lobbying: force disclosure and publish every last detail about every penny Jack Abramoff and his friends and anyone else in Washington ever spent. And stop there. That's what real reporters used to do before they all became blogger-columnist wannabes writing editorials for the wire services and 'news' pages.

Let's accept the ancient wisdom that power eventually corrupts and that most career politicians are more than a little on the seamy side. (I'll take a reluctant, late-career public servant any day: Reagan, Bush, Romney.) Drop every other micro-managing regulation (e.g., McCain-Feingold) that presumes an ideal that cannot ever be achieved: the eradication of influence. Let the press do the job it was meant to do - investigate.

And while we're at it, let's get off this idea that the only kinds of influence and corruption that are contemptible are corporate and conservative. The other (liberal) kind is just as inexcusable.

As Communist apologist Walter Duranty quipped in 1933 in reference to Stalin: "You've got to break eggs to make an omelet". If the cause is liberal or socialist (what's the difference, you may ask), the ends always justify the means. Granite countertops... but she cares. A thirty million dollar racket to routinely fleece conservative teachers and give the money to Jesse Jackson... noble. Republican lobbyist for companies the stocks of which make up most peoples' retirement accounts these days... Gotcha!

UPDATE: Sisu has a great round-up of the cooler heads on the Abramoff affair.