The Republican senator, who is under fire for his ties to Jack Abramoff, has apparently decided that comparing himself to a bank robber is his best defense:

In an interview, Mr. Burns, a former agricultural auctioneer and broadcaster, dismissed as irrelevant the relative size of the campaign contributions he had received from Mr. Abramoff and his associates, saying some Democrats had taken money from the same sources.

“What’s the difference between one dollar and one thousand? Its all dollars,” Mr. Burns said. “Just like you rob a bank down here. If you get a thousand you go to jail, and if you get a million you go to jail.”

Genius.

Update 3/2: Noam Scheiber of The New Republic comments on the same quote:

Hmmm… If only the architects of our legal system had seen fit to accommodate these subtle distinctions. Oh wait, they did. Turns out you go to jail for a lot longer if you steal a million dollars. Who knew?