Free Republic

Then head of the Justice Department’s Civil Division, he invented a new form of what 19th-early 20th centuries Tammany boss George Washington Plunkett famously called “Honest Graft.” It was simple. Until 1977, Congress had to approve any settlement of a civil suit against the Federal government over $100,000. This preserved the Constitutional requirement that Congress control the government’s purse. But in that year, seeking relief from the burgeoning volume of suits to review, Congress removed the cap, handing the Justice Department a permanent blank check to pay settlements unilaterally, in any amount, out of an account known as the Judgment...

Amidst charges of Republican corruption stemming from Abramoff contributions, Democrats were unhappy with revelations that, on average, lobbyists have given 10 percent more in campaign contributions to Democrats than to Republicans since 1990. The analysis was done by the non-partisan Center for Responsive Politics. The study undermines Democrat efforts to paint Republicans as the authors of a "culture of corruption" in Congress. The study found that Democrats accepted approximately $53 million from lobbyists while Republicans accepted $48 million. Senator Harry Reid (D-Nev.), a recipient of tens of thousands of dollars from Abramoff, dismissed the research results. "It's not the amount...