Truespeak

If you've got your calendar nearby and a pencil handy, I want you to circle yesterday's date because the Democrats finally seem to be getting their shit together and yesterday was the first sign. In a rare showing of unity, the Democrats hit the talking head shows with a unified, concise message. There was no beating around the bush (no pun intended), no parsing of words, and no nuance to their message. It was truly a sight to behold. The popular topic of the day was the Abramoff scandal and the Democrats were ready to go.

For me, it began with Sen. Charles Schumer on Meet the Press. Schumer wasted no time and few words setting the record straight.

MR. RUSSERT: Senator Harry Reid, the leader of the Democrats in the Senate, received $60,000 from Jack Abramoff, says he won’t give it back. Why not?

SEN. SCHUMER: Well, he hasn’t received any money from Jack Abramoff. In fact, I talked to Harry Reid.

MR. RUSSERT: Well, tribal clients. I mean...

SEN. SCHUMER: Well, but the tribal clients are sometimes different. I mean, lots of senators, Democrat and Republican in the West, have relationships—particularly in the West, have relationships with the Indian tribes. And let me say this: The issue here is not simply receiving contributions. The issue is whether services were rendered in return. That’s what the Justice Department is mentioning. The Justice Department has mentioned the names of a group of people—John is certainly right; it’s not everybody, but every single person they mentioned was a Republican. Harry Reid’s name was not mentioned. He’s a person of integrity and I don’t think the two are at all the same.

MR. RUSSERT: But wouldn’t it better for the Democrats for Senator Reid to return that money, the way other Democrats have, just to avoid any sense of taint?

SEN. SCHUMER: Well, let me say, when these things happen—and you’ve been around Washington a long time, Tim—you know, there’s all sorts of allegations bandied about, many of them false and many of them put out by political opponents, and some people do return the money because they feel, “Oh, gee, I don’t want to deal with all those false allegations.”  Others say, “I’ve done nothing wrong, I’m not going to.”  That’s the type of person Harry Reid is. He’s done nothing wrong. He’s a person of integrity. In fact, next week, he’s going to be unveiling a whole plan to clear up the corruption, particularly with lobbyists in Washington. He’s on the right side. He’s on the force for change. And if the Republican leadership would allow his bill or a bill of their choosing like it to come to the floor, I think we could do a lot to eliminate these kinds of problems.

(Emphasis mine)

Very nice. Short, direct, and unequivocating. But the real coup de grace came a little later in the morning when DNC Chair Howard Dean appeared on CNN's Late Edition and Wolf Blitzer tried the same approach.

BLITZER: Should Democrats who took money from Jack Abramoff, who has now pleaded guilty to bribery charges, among other charges, a Republican lobbyist in Washington, should the Democrat who took money from him give that money to charity or give it back?

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.

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...

BLITZER: What about Senator Byron Dorgan?

DEAN: Senator Byron Dorgan and some others took money from Indian tribes. They're not agents of Jack Abramoff. There's no evidence that I've seen that Jack Abramoff directed any contributions to Democrats. I know the Republican National Committee would like to get the Democrats involved in this. They're scared. They should be scared. They haven't told the truth. They have misled the American people. And now it appears they're stealing from Indian tribes. The Democrats are not involved in this.

[Note: The transcript leaves out the very audible exasperated sigh uttered by Blitzer at this point. You can see and hear it clearly in the video posted @ Crooks and Liars.]

BLITZER: Unfortunately Mr. Chairman, we got to leave it right there.

Howard Dean, the chairman of the Democratic Party, always speaking out bluntly, candidly.

(Emphasis mine)

Ahhhhh! It's going to be a good year, I can feel it already. [Snif...Sniff] What's that I smell? Could it be the Republican party crashing and burning? One can only hope.

SIDENOTE: As you may know, Mrs. kissfan is a math teacher and she says that the Republicans are trying to play a game of guilt by the transitive property. What's the transitive property, you ask? Well, that's the mathematical rule that states If a=b and b=c, then a=c. Thereby, the Republicans are trying to say that if Abramoff represented Indian Tribes and Indian tribes donated to Democrats, then Abramoff donated to Democrats. Too bad for them, it's not that simple. Consider this a little bonus for all you math geeks out there.