Why Oh Why Can't We Have a Better Press Corps? (Yet Another Washington Post Edition)

Washington Post staff writer Derek Willis asserts, at http://blogs.washingtonpost.com/washpostblog/2006/01/new_blog_maryla.html#c12922412:

firedoglake: 01/15/2006 - 01/21/2006 : Writing as someone who was involved in researching campaign contributions for these [Abramoff] stories, I'd like point out what the Post's reporting on this has demonstrated.... Abramoff... direct[ed] his tribal clients to contribute to both Democrats and Republicans, with Republicans getting the bulk of such funds

Jane Hamsher comments:

The quasi-hit piece co-authored by Mr. Willis in June of last year entitled "Democrats Also Got Tribal Donations: Abramoff Issue's Fallout May Extend Beyond the GOP" buries this bit at the bottom:

A spokesman for [Patrick] Kennedy said the congressman's donations from the tribes "have nothing to do with Abramoff." Kennedy traces the money's genesis to his family's long-standing commitment to Indian causes, to the fact that he co-founded the Congressional Native American Caucus in 1997, and to his personal relationship with Mississippi Choctaw Chief Philip Martin, whom Kennedy met in 1999 on a fundraising trip for the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee. "They just became close friends," said Kennedy spokesman Sean Richardson.

So let me ask Mr. Willis. If the Indian tribes had a relationship with Patrick Kennedy completely independent of Jack Abramoff, isn't it a bit patronizing to say that Abramoff would "direct his tribal clients" to give money to him?

Derek Willis assertion, and many other comments as well, appear to have been deleted from http://blogs.washingtonpost.com/washpostblog/2006/01/new_blog_maryla.html#c12922412.