Unafraid to keep the money

So our state's senior senator, Patty Murray, is keeping $35,000 in campaign donations she got from clients of disgraced lobbyist Jack Abramoff.

Good for her. She's one of the few politicians or pundits who understand what this corruption scandal is really about. Since Abramoff copped to a congressional bribery scheme last week, fearful politicians, including our other senator, Maria Cantwell, have been skittering to toss back hundreds of thousands of dollars in perfectly legal contributions from Indian tribes that once used Abramoff's lobbying services.

Now, the editorial boards of three local newspapers, including my own, are pounding on Murray to do the same.

"It is simply not OK to profit from ill-gotten gains," scolded The Columbian of Vancouver, Wash., telling Murray to return the "tainted money."

But Murray is going with her gut. Her contributions were not from Abramoff, she says, and were "legally given, legally reported and legally spent."

In comments that will have her colleague Cantwell squirming, Murray says returning the money is a hollow stunt to make politicians look good.

"I will not rush to scapegoat those tribes who have already been victimized by Jack Abramoff," Murray wrote in a letter to The Seattle Times. "Your easy answer would be fine if all I wanted was to score cheap points on being 'clean.' "

I don't much care what happens to the money. But I'm glad Murray's taking this stand. She's highlighting the craven way other politicians have reacted to this scandal.

And also how some serious corruption is being spun into an "everybody does it" blur. In fact, everybody does not do it.

Yes, all politicians get campaign contributions. But this scandal is not about openly reported contributions. It's about bribery. Money laundering. A criminal and secret scheme to trade jobs, trips and other favors for government contracts and legislation.

It is about members of this administration, Congress and their staffs putting themselves personally up for sale, including, allegedly, a key staffer for the former House majority leader, Tom DeLay.

To respond to all that by giving back legal campaign donations trivializes the scandal. It makes it seem as if openly accepting a campaign donation is morally equivalent to secretly taking a bribe.

"We sat down and talked about it, and the clear conclusion we came to is that we didn't do anything wrong, so why should we act like we did?" said Murray's chief of staff, Rick Desimone.

Yes. And why don't the rest of us reserve our ire for those who actually broke the law?

It's why all these well-meaning proposals for lobbying reform seem so beside the point.

We have rules already, but Abramoff broke them. He didn't do it alone. Lapping up his bribes, apparently, were members of Congress, officials in the Interior Department and others in the executive branch.

Murray is right. A new coat of paint won't shiny up this Capitol. We need to roust the criminals first.

Danny Westneat's column appears Wednesday and Friday. Reach him at 206-464-2086 or dwestneat@seattletimes.com.