South Dakota senators return money connected to Abramoff

The status of the South Dakota Senators, and ex-Senator are instructive, and raise an interesting logical conclusion.

First, the responses to the Abramoff indictments:

South Dakota Sen. John Thune, a Republican, said he will donate $2,000 he received from Abramoff and his wife to a domestic abuse shelter in Mission, S.D., that he visited last year. Through a spokesman, Thune called Abramoff’s actions “reprehensible.”

The state’s other senator, Democrat Tim Johnson, said he will return $8,250 in donations from the lobbyist’s clients and associates to an organization that helps Native Americans. The donations to Johnson’s campaign include $6,250 from three of Abramoff’s tribal clients and $2,000 from one of Abramoff’s colleagues at his lobbying firm….”The contributions I received were legal contributions from people and tribes that had nothing to do with Mr. Abramoff’s outrageous behavior,” Johnson said in a prepared statement.

And the third ex-officio member of the SD Senate community:

Former Senate Democratic Leader Tom Daschle, the South Dakotan who was defeated by Thune in 2004, received tens of thousands of dollars in campaign donations from Abramoff’s associates and tribal clients. Steve Hildebrand, Daschle’s former campaign manager, said Wednesday that he will not return or give away the money because it would be “a big slap in the face to Native Americans across the country.” Hildebrand said that giving the money away would “be a suggestion that he accepted the contributions for the wrong reasons and that’s not the case.”

OK then, according to Hildebrand’s stated standard, Sen. Johnson’s returned $8,250 could be interpreted as a sign that he “accepted the contributions for the wrong reason”, and that THAT’s why the funds had to be returned! (Of course, as icing on this logical cake, the same point could be made about Thune’s $2,000 also.)

It’s interesting to note the positions of the SD Donks and SD GOP in this regard also:

The South Dakota Democratic party also received thousands of dollars connected to Abramoff, according to the Center for Responsive Politics. Party officials would not say Wednesday whether they would return or give away the money.

A spokesman for the South Dakota Republican Party said it has nothing to return. “As far as our records show, the party has not received any Abramoff-related donations,”

One has to wonder whether Tim is thinking something like “Thanks Steve, I like you too!”