BISMARCK - Stung by recent news that he accepted money tainted by a high-powered Washington lobbyist he's charged with investigating, Sen. Byron Dorgan, D-N.D., said Monday he's returned $67,000 in political contributions to donors tied to the man.

Dorgan said he returned all political donations that may have been connected to Jack Abramoff, who is under investigation by the Senate Indian Affairs Committee for allegedly bilking American Indian tribe clients out of tens of millions of dollars.

Dorgan is the ranking Democrat on the committee and has blasted Abramoff as
"crooked" and"corrupt,' saying he and Chairman Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz., have "uncovered a disgusting tale of greed and outright fraud."

Tribes donated the campaign funds to Dorgan over a four-year period. It was all returned last week, he said. . . .

Dorgan directed staff at his campaign committee and Great Plains Leadership Fund political action committee to go through the books and identify and return all contributions "from tribes represented by Mr. Abramoff's law firm and from individuals employed by his law firm during the time he was at the firm," he said.

"I will not knowingly keep even one dollar in contributions if there is even a remote possibility that they could have been the result of any action Mr. Abramoff might have taken."

Dorgan's campaign committee returned $24,000 and the Great Plains Leadership Fund returned $43,000, he said.

So Dorgan has decided to give the money back to Abramoff's clients after he spends months investigating similar donations made to other lawmakers, and only after widespread criticism.

Amazing what a little bad press can do for your piety, isn't it?

As I've said again and again, Dorgan has no place in this investigation. I'm still not convinced that he was involved in any legal or ethical wrong-doing, but when you have money connections to the people who are subject to an investigation you are leading the proper thing to do is to step down. This is just common sense and happens routinely in the judicial community. That doing so would be politically inconvenient for Dorgan is irrelevant. When he joined the investigation he knew who it would be focusing on and he was aware of his conections to these people. Had Dorgan been upfront with his connections to Abramoff and Abramoff's clients before this investigation started there wouldn't be much room to criticize him.

Its his own fault, and giving the money back doesn't change a thing.

Dorgan needs to step down and let this investigation run its course. That is the only honorable thing to do at this point.

You can contact Sen. Dorgan here and tell him that.