Tuesday, December 9, 2008

OMFG

It's not often that I am completely blown away by something unexpected when I casually click on the headlines, but this time I certainly was. Just in case you thought you had seen everything crazy that politicians do, be sure to click here. Of course at this stage it's only an allegation, we have to assume innocence, but it's said that it's captured on tape.

What is up with these characters? On top of the outrageousness of the crime itself, I am, as with most of the previous cases, stunned by how anyone could possibly be so stupid. How could anyone possibly imagine that he would get away with this? And how could it be so blatant? Of course I would never have this problem because if I were a governor it wouldn't even occur to me to try to sell a U.S. Senate seat, but even if you were the kind of person who would do this, wouldn't you at least do it with a modicum of discretion? I mean, I know there are crooked politicians, but somehow I imagined that even they employ roundabout periphases that give some degree of plausible deniability. Look at Ted Stevens. He was found guilty, but even he hadn't given the government a smoking-gun, straight-up, goods-for-votes trade. That's why he was only convicted of failing to report gifts.

If the evidence in the current case is true, we have outrageous, flat-out bribery. It's utterly corrupt and it's unbelievably stupid.

No comments: