Hey, you can't judge a politician by the character, or lack thereof, of their political contributors, right? So Nevada GOP Sen. John Ensign won't mind if we report that he received contributions from David Safavian, the Bush administration official who got popped Monday for lying to investigators and trying to block a federal probe of Safavian's former partner, disgraced GOP uberlobbyist and Tom DeLay side-kick Jack Abramoff.
In the 1998 campaign cycle, Safavian dished out $1,724 to Ensign, and the senator got another $800 from Safavian's wife, according to records at PoliticalMoneyLine. Safavian slipped another $1,000 into Ensign's coffers in 1999.
Yes, alert readers will remember that Ensign also received contributions from Abramoff himself - $4,000 in 2003, and $5,000 from Abramoff to Ensign's Battle Born PAC in 2002.
One could, one supposes, make some point or another about how such contributions merely reflect how Ensign's political principles and positions are amenable to those peddled in the halls of Congress by influential crony capitalists who use the federal government chiefly to enrich themselves and their clients at the expense of the broader public interest. But with Ensign facing no opponent in his bid for re-election next year, really, why bother?
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