WaPo Ombudsman Tries to Make Nice With Her Critics

I reported earlier this week on the firestorm that was set off by a column by Washington Post ombudsman Deborah Howell when she reported the truth about the Abramoff scandal. Her report, which correctly stated that Abramoff and his clients had contributed to both parties, got the wacky left's panties in a wad and they flooded the WaPo blog with vile, hatefilled comments to the point that the editor had to shut it down. The Washington Post seemed particularly surprised by this vitriolic response, but shouldn't be, since the same thing happens to conservative sites all the time (including this one).

Howell, for reasons I cannot imagine, is now scrambling to make nice with the very people who called her a "right-wing whore" and lots of other unprintable stuff. This is what she writes in her column today:

Nothing in my 50-year career prepared me for the thousands of flaming e-mails I got last week over my last column, e-mails so abusive and many so obscene that part of The Post's Web site was shut down.

That column praised The Post for breaking the story on lobbyist Jack Abramoff's dealings, for which he has pleaded guilty to several felony counts. The column clearly pointed out that Abramoff is a Republican and dealt mainly with Republicans, most prominently former House majority leader Tom DeLay of Texas.

I wrote that he gave campaign money to both parties and their members of Congress. He didn't. I should have said he directed his client Indian tribes to make campaign contributions to members of Congress from both parties.

My mistake set off a firestorm. I heard that I was lying, that Democrats never got a penny of Abramoff-tainted money, that I was trying to say it was a bipartisan scandal, as some Republicans claim. I didn't say that. It's not a bipartisan scandal; it's a Republican scandal, and that's why the Republicans are scurrying around trying to enact lobbying reforms.

But there is no doubt about the campaign contributions that were directed to lawmakers of both parties. Records from the Federal Election Commission and the Center for Public Integrity show that Abramoff's Indian clients contributed money to 195 Republicans and 88 Democrats between 1999 and 2004. The Post also has copies of lists sent to tribes by Abramoff with his personal directions on which members were to receive what amounts.

Michael Crowley of the New Republic said in his blog that "while for all practical purposes this is indisputably a Republican scandal, the narrow liberal-blogger definition of whether any Democrats took money 'from Abramoff' -- which neatly excludes contributions he directed his clients to make -- amounts to foolish semantics.''

In paraphrase Howell, it's a Republican scandal, but Abramoff's clients did give money to Democrats as well, so therefore I was wrong to point that out and the flaming morons who flooded the blog with evil comments were right to call me on it.

Some journalistic excellence.

I realize that it must pain the WaPo to receive criticism from the left, given how they try and cater to that crowd. But sometimes you hurt the ones you love, and when the WaPo dared report the truth on the Abramoff matter, they should have stood by their guns and told the critics to "screw you". I'm sure they do that with conservative critics all the time.

For the rest of the column she basically, in carefully couched language, tries to assure the wackos that she's really one of them and they shouldn't be so tough on her. Her only attempt to strike back at the critics is this:

To all of those who wanted me fired, I'm afraid you're out of luck. I have a contract. For the next two years, I will continue to speak my mind.

Keep smiling. I will.

I'll be surprised if this episode hasn't completely neutered her when it comes to any future criticism of the left.

UPDATE: For the lefty doubters who still can't believe Abrahamoff had anything to do with donations to Democrats, here's a good source of information about the donations he, and the entities for whom he lobbied, made.

UPDATE 2: Looks like this attempt to make nice with the lefties has fallen flat. They're still outraged at any suggestion that Abrahamoff was in any way connected to Democrats, and the insults are flying through the lefty blogosphere. For your entertainment, go to the original article and look at the blogging section down the page. You can click on blogs that have posted about the article. Every one I looked at was one pissed off lefty after another. Too funny.