A couple of days ago I got into a bit of a snit with fellow commenters in
this diary by KagroX about Senator Byron Dorgan. He had written it in response to a Kos front page diary that said Dorgan was "in the crosshairs" of the Abramoff probe. There was
another diary on the "Dorgan smear" today.
My argument was that Dorgan should be investigated because he had received donations from Abramoff clients after Senate votes that favored said Abramoff clients. As should any Senator. Many folks took issue with that, correctly pointing out that the source for the story was a lawyer for the tribe that just happened too be a GOP operative. KagroX and today's diarist labeled it a smear campaign. It may have been, in that GOP operative's mind, for all I know, but that doesn't change the fact that Dorgan should be investigated.
Now there's more reason to do so (below).
From Raw Story comes a link to
Yahoonews.
In story that will surely get him onto Josh Marshall's list, Dorgan "met several times with the lobbyist's team and clients" and held a fundraiser in Abramoff's infamous skybox and worked to get a very questionable ruling that got a ton of federal money sent to the tribe.
By JOHN SOLOMON and SHARON THEIMER, Associated Press Writers
1 hour, 46 minutes ago
WASHINGTON - The top Senate Democrat investigating Jack Abramoff's Indian lobbying met several times with the lobbyist's team and clients, held a fundraiser in Abramoff's arena skybox and arranged congressional help for one of the tribes, records show Sen. Byron Dorgan, D-N.D., acknowledges he got Congress in fall 2003 to press government regulators to decide, after decades of delay, whether the Mashpee Wampanoag tribe of Massachusetts deserved federal recognition.
Dorgan met with the tribe's representatives and collected at least $11,500 in political donations from Abramoff partner Michael D. Smith, who was representing the Mashpee, around the time he helped craft the legislation, according to interviews and documents obtained by The Associated Press.
Am I missing something? Is this an extension of a smear campaign? Dorgan is the top Dem in the Senate committee's of Abramoff--and he held a fundraiser in Abramoff's skybox! Please educate me if I'm missing something. I'll gladly concede if shown the error of my ways.