“Ninety percent of politicians give the other ten percent a bad reputation.” Was there anything Charles de Gaulle did not know? He would have made a fine prosecutor of public corruption, a job that is keeping law enforcement officials busy across the nation.
A Baedeker of recent corruption investigations and prosecutions is a grim affair that runs from coast to coast.
Oregon’s John Kitzhaber resigned his governorship in February after a torrent of revelations about his longtime fiancée’s doings collided at the intersection of Cylvia Hayes’s lucrative private interests and her public policy influence as an unpaid advisor to Kitzhaber. The cull from disclosures included Kitzhaber’s grip on reality as the deluge swept him out of office on a tide of incoherent and contradictory statements on the scandal at the beginning of his fourth term.
Allies, friends and admirers of the governor and his fiancée seemed surprised that two people who, the New York Times reported with admiration, “shared passion for a low-carbon energy future” would get into such a grimy mess. How could all that renewable virtue be mixed with a potent cocktail of old-fashioned greed?
The Kitzhaber scandal started with digging by Willamette Weekly Pulitzer Prize winning reporter Nigel Jaquiss. Federal law enforcement authorities around the country want in on the Jaquiss method. In New England, for example, billboards have appeared recently asking the public to “Stop Corruption Now” by calling 1-800-CALL-FBI and to share some tips on what dirty doings in government they may know about.
That easy-to-remember number can be used from sea to shining sea to report suspicions of abuse of public office. You, upright citizen, may attach your name to a tip or remain anonymous.
Someone spilled the goods on former Pennsylvania state treasurer Rob McCord’s bullying ways. The two term Democrat made campaign fundraising calls that included threats to hurt potential donors’ ability to do business with the state. McCord called these “talking points” in what even for modern politics seems a misuse of the English language. Federal prosecutors characterized them as two counts of attempted extortion. McCord resigned his office at the end of January and pled guilty to the criminal charges a couple of weeks later.
The former first couple of Virginia traded their freedom for $150,000 in loans, golf trips, vacations, expensive frocks and assorted fripperies from a Virginia businessman. Greedy Republican former governor Bob McDonnell and his grasping wife Maureen will each do a stretch in the hoosegow after a jury last summer convicted them of corruption. That’s a hefty price to pay for a grab bag of graft that included a swank Louis Vuitton bag.
The McDonnells’ criminal troubles started when a chef in the governor’s mansion tipped off authorities to catering services for a McDonnell family wedding paid for by the ingratiating businessman. Todd Schneider, the chef, had his own troubles with billing and bookkeeping that brought him to the attention of law enforcement. The best defense in these things is not always innocence; it’s providing evidence of crimes committed by the powerful.
The McDonnells referred to Schneider as “a disgruntled former employee.” Maureen McDonnell’s former chief of staff referred to her boss as “a nutbag.” These federal investigations always reveal vivid details when people with information start reaching out to 1-800-CALL-FBI.
Former New York Assembly Speaker Sheldon Sliver’s two decade tenure in that powerful office ended in February after U.S. Attorney Preet Bharara indicted the Manhattan Democrat on corruption charges. Silver is accused of receiving millions in outside income from two New York law firms in return for performing no legal work. Wielding shadowy influence for the firms was the coin of that lucrative realm, according to Bharara.
The indictment shook the furtive world of New York politics, though observers long wondered how Silver could make so much money while seeming to do no work for it. Bharara urges New Yorkers to “stay tuned” for more, causing 90% of Albany to tremble.
