Clown Show Cage Match: Deborah Howell and Jim Brady vs. Susan Schmidt (Yet Another Why Oh Why Can't We Have a Better Press Corps? Washington Post Edition)

I can't resist one more snapshot from the Washington Post clown show:

Susan Schimdt, February 22, 2004:

A Jackpot From Indian Gaming Tribes : Under Abramoff's guidance, the four tribes -- Michigan's Saginaw Chippewas, the Agua Caliente of California, the Mississippi Choctaws and the Louisiana Coushattas -- have also become major political donors. They have loosened their traditional ties to the Democratic Party, giving Republicans two-thirds of the $2.9 million they have donated to federal candidates since 2001, records show...

Sure doesn't sound like Susan Schmidt thinks that Abramoff "directed his client Indian tribes to make campaign contributions to members... from both parties," does it? Yet that's what Deborah Howell and Jim Brady claim:

Deborah Howell, January 22, 2006:

The Firestorm Over My Column : I wrote that he gave campaign money to both parties and their members of Congress. He didn't. I should have said he directed his client Indian tribes to make campaign contributions to members of Congress from both parties.... [T]here is no doubt about the campaign contributions that were directed to lawmakers of both parties.

Jim Brady, January 20, 2006:

firedoglake : Well, they... they objected originally to the fact that [Deborah Howell]... that when she stated it, she made it seem as if [Abramoff] personally was donating to Democrats. But what she meant to say was that he was directing [his clients to give] money to Democrats, which as I said, is beyond any kind of argument...

But Brady's and Howell's conclusion is not the conclusion that anyone but a right-wing loony would get from Susan Schmidt's article, is it? Susan Schmidt thinks Abramoff was directing his clients to give less money to Democrats than they had in the past--"loosen their traditional ties to the Democratic Party"--and more to Republicans, doesn't she?

Remember: As even right-wing ex-Pioneer Press editor and current Washington Post ombudsman Deborah Howell admits: the Abramoff scandal is not a bipartisan scandal, but a Republican scandal.