I just wanted to drop a shout out to my all time favorite politician, former Louisiana Governor Edwin Edwards, who I wrote about briefly, way back here. Ed epitomized everything about southern Democrat politics and the politicians if fostered. He was charming, funny, and as quick witted as any man who has ever served office. He was also hopelessly corrupt, so he's also been in Federal prison in Texas for a few years on a bribery and extortion conviction. He got out yesterday.
I personally tend to be tolerant of a little corruption in politicians. None of us is perfect and what do you expect them to do? It's not like it's a rarity, so there must be some incentive in place that leads to corruption. So if we give them enough power to exploit it, then it's probably our own damned fault - we shouldn't be surprised.
I'm not saying they shouldn't be jailed for it, of course they should. But so long as they handle it with the kind of style that Ed did, once he's paid his debt to society I'm as willing to forgive as the next man. So good luck to you governor. Please try to keep out of trouble.
3 comments:
Well......
I admit Edwin Edwards is a colorful character. He is reputed to have said. "The only way I can lose this election is if I'm caught in bed with either a dead girl or a live boy".
But New Orleans has nothing going for it besides Mardi Gras. The state would be toast without oil and gas production, which Obama is killing along with it fishing industry. After that's gone, how are they better off than Mississippi or Arkansas? The MSM was so busy blaming Dubya for Katrina that they completely failed to investigate credible allegations that the walls that failed were not built to specs.
I gotta disagree with you about public corruption. I think it encourages civil disengagement. I worked with a guy from Chicago and asked him if he voted. He said. "No, it doesn't make any difference". We will be no better than a banana republic if that attitude spreads.
The guy who sticks up a bank for a measly few thousand dollars gets 5 years. Charles Rangel, (there are many more examples), is still in Congress. He should be doing 20 years minimum for violating the public trust.
I would punish official corruption -much- more harshly than simple robbery. Public officials should be looking over their shoulders all the time.
You miss my point. What I mean is that corruption is part of the job. It's static - like a cloudy day. You can't seperate the two. Statistically, you are always going to get a little of it.
The only way to really manage the harm it does is to keep our government officials so lacking in authority and power that they don't really have much of anything worthwhile to sell.
Even then we'll still get corruption, but at that point if it's handled well, then maybe we won;t mind as much.
I think we are on the same page.
I agree that there will always be some corruption, and I agree that there will be fewer opportunities for corruption if government at all levels were smaller.
The problem with DC is that, because there is so much money sloshing around, there are multi-million dollar paydays for gaining a small competitive edge through earmarks or friendly/captured regulators.
My point was that public corruption should be punished more harshly than a 7-11 stickup, because the thief has not only stolen from all of us, but has also violated a public trust.
A few high profile examples from time to time would keep them focused.
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