It's become a scandal-related ritual: A member of Congress gets into a moral or ethical jam and researchers for the opposing political party comb through contribution lists to see who the member gave money to.
It happened with Anthony Weiner and it's now happening with Oregon's David Wu, a Democrat who said earlier this week that he intends to resign from office. Wu's announcement came after The Oregonian reported that Wu is accused of having an unwanted sexual encounter with an 18-yea-old woman.
Wu gave U.S. Rep. Chris Murphy, a fellow Democrat who is now running for U.S. Senate, a $1,000 contribution in 2006. "Given the very serious nature of the allegations against Congressman Wu, and his support for Chris Murphy's political career, isn't it time for Congressman Murphy to return the money Wu gave to his campaign?"asked Chris Bond, spokesman for the National Republican Senatorial Committee.
Murphy campaign manager Kenny Curran characterized the NRSC attack as "nonsense."
"[I] Would think the NRSC would have better things to do with their time,'' Curran said via email. "Chris is too busy doing his job to worry about this nonsense.''