Posted by D. Cupples | I wish blatant corruption really were confined to Alaska. Being from Florida, I know better. Consider this snippet from yesterday's Washington Post:
"Pete Kott, the former Republican speaker of the Alaska House of Representatives, crowed as he described beating back a tax bill opposed by oil companies. 'I had to cheat, steal, beg, borrow and lie," Kott said. "Exxon's happy. BP's happy. I'll sell my soul to the devil.'"
"It did not, of course. Since breaking into public view a year ago when federal agents raided lawmakers' offices and homes -- finding $32,200 neatly stacked in a closet of Kott's condo -- the federal probe has produced four indictments, three convictions, three guilty pleas and a rapt audience keen to see how high into Alaska's political hierarchy the rot reaches.
"Officially, the scandal has remained confined to Juneau, where Alaska lawmakers had grown so accustomed to operating under the presumption of impropriety that several of them embroidered ball caps with the letters CBC, for "Corrupt Bastards Club." (An Anchorage coffeehouse now offers Corrupt Bastards Brew.) But with signs that the investigation is brushing against Alaska's lone congressman, Don Young (R), and its longtime and venerated senator Ted Stevens (R), residents of the Last Frontier are experiencing a rare spasm of soul-searching."
"'Well, that will stay in this room,' one lobbyist said as a midnight session wound down.
The threat of jail time often does inspire "soul searching."
I doubt we'll ever completely rid our political system of corruption, but we can reduce it by reducing the flow of private money into our election system. That's why we need real campaign-finance reform -- as opposed to token lobbying "reform."
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