Timeline

A lot has been made over Gov. Dean's contention on Jan 8, on CNN's Late Edition, that "There are no Democrats who took money from Jack Abramoff, not one, not one single Democrat. Every person named in this scandal is a Republican. Every person under investigation is a Republican. Every person indicted is a Republican. This is a Republican finance scandal. There is no evidence that Jack Abramoff ever gave any Democrat any money. And we've looked through all of those FEC reports to make sure that's true."

That was January 8, 2006. Very soon afterwards, Media Matters argued that Gov. Dean was correct in his statement, while QandO discusses the difference between direct and indirect money that makes it seem that Gov. Dean may have been factually correct, but misleading.

Back to May 3, 2005. On that date, the AP put out a story that indicated that two Congressmen, Rep. James Clyburn (D-S.C.) and Rep. Bennie Thompson (D-Miss.) "received travel expenses initially paid by lobbyist Jack Abramoff on his credit card or by his firm" during late 90's trips to Guam.

Correct me if I'm wrong, but wouldn't this revelation, information about which was available before Gov. Dean's statement, indicate that the DNC chair's statement may have been... not truthful?

Just asking...

Update 2159 12 Jan: Here's an article that came out even closer to January 8th (three days before) that mentions the travel money the two Representatives took from Abramoff.

Update 2239 12 Jan: Plus, Rep. Pelosi just named Rep. Clyburn to the 'Clean House Team', described as "a Democratic task force to address the Republican culture of corruption and lead the charge in restoring honor and dignity to the House of Representatives." Irony abounds!