Say Anything Blog

There was a Senator from SD who seemed to be involved with Tribes vote buying and corruption two elections ago.  I wonder if this will stick and Dorgan will go down as Dashel did in the last election.  What is the story in ND?  About what percentage of Tribes vote in the general election there?

It amazes me that people think the Bureau of Indian Affairs is a good thing. Politicians of both parties who work on Indian Affairs are being dragged in front of judges on charges of corruption on a regular basis. I remember Dorgan telling everyone how he was going to clean up and fix BoIA. What ever came of that?  As for the Mashpees, they have been struggling for official recognition for decades. So how is it that they have to pay money to Abramoff and, by extension through him, Dorgan in order to recieve this?

I wonder if this will stick and Dorgan will go down as Dashel did in the last election.

Well, Dorgan isn’t up again until 2010 or something like that, so the chances that ND voters are going to remember this scandal that long (unless Dorgan ends up getting indicted or something) is minimal.

2H9: I’m with you.  The reservation system, particularly, is a mess.  As I’ve pointed out several times before, here in ND our unemployment rate is just over 3%, yet on the reservations its over 60%.  It is insanity to think that keeping these people cooped up in these welfare-state reservations is a good idea.  Let them integrate with the rest of the country.  Its time.

When the people fear their government, there is tyranny; when the government fears the people, there is liberty.

-- Thomas Jefferson

Rob’s recently listened-to songs:

[...] We don’t know yet which politicians engaged in quid pro quo arrangements with Abramoff and his clients, but given that at least one Democrat - Senator Byron Dorgan - has accepted contributions from Abramoff’s clients and taken favorable political action for those same clients, it is clear that the tenticles of this corruption reach, at least superficially, into both parties. [...]

[...] Oh sure.  Dorgan didn’t know Abramoff.  Of course, he did use Abramoff’s suite at the MCI Center for a fundraiser.  He did accept at least $67,000 in contribution’s from Abramoff’s clients.  He did accept some of that money from employees of Jack Abramoff.  He did meet with an Abramoff associate and representative of an Indian tribe in Massachusetts during a time when he was pushing for that tribe’s recognition in Congress. [...]

[...] Of couse, we know North Dakota Senator Byron Dorgan accepted money from Abramoff clients, met with an Abramoff associate and then took direct, favorable political action on behalf of the Mashpee Wampanoag tribe of Massachusetts, an Abramoff client. [...]

[...] Franken goes on to deny that Dorgan is connected to the Indian tribe (and an Abramoff associate representing the tribe) and takes up the “It’s a Republican scandal!” mantle, but Say Anything readers know that such is connection is very real. [...]