Democrats did take money from him

The denial machine continues to work. Friday’s letters to the editor had two letters denying the fact that The Herald continues to blame only GOP recipients of Jack Abramoff, professional lobbyist. Both letter writers seem to deny The Herald’s Jan. 11 article was slanted to make the GOP the only “bad guy.” The headline read, “DeLay sought casino’s closure after a donation.” The “news” story implied only that the GOP use and fiscally abuses lobbyists. Many other news outlets also imply the GOP complicity.

To deny that only the GOP take money, look at the headline for Jan. 7. The Herald headline states, “Cantwell donating dubious money.” Even our sainted senator in tennis shoes, Patty Murray, took over $75,000 from Jack Abramoff. A simple search on the Internet returns many hits that list 40 of 45 Democratic senators received gifts, tickets, skybox tickets and money from Abramoff. To deny it, as Howard Dean has, is just like the ostrich that puts his head into the sand. At least Harry Reid apologized for his errors.

Please keep in mind that I think lobbyists are necessary and protected by law, but they should have strong rules to work by. They work in our city governments, the state legislators and the Congress everyday and sometimes have unlimited access, resources and time to influence our legislation processors.

A corrupt lobbyist should be punished, not labeled. It is partly the fault of the news organizations that give us the news and that news should be fair and balanced not warped and biased by the individual reporter.

John Van Dalen

Everett

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