CORRUPTION Syndromes of Corruption

68 Syndromes of Corruption
A rogues’ gallery
Should they be so concerned? A degree of skepticism is a healthy thing in
a democracy, and bribery has often figured in American political history.
Until 1912, for example, Senators were chosen by state legislatures and
payments by aspirants to lawmakers were frequent in some states. In
1912 Illinois Senator William Lorimer’s 1909 election was invalidated
by the US Senate on grounds of bribery (US Senate, 2004). More recent
examples include James Traficant (Democrat – Ohio), who was expelled
from the House in 2002 for trading official services for donations and
bribes, extorting salary kickbacks from employees, taking steps to conceal
those kickbacks, filing false tax returns, and lying to a grand jury (Your
Congress, 2004). The ‘‘Keating Five’’ were Senators John McCain and
Dennis Deconcini (Republican and Democrat, respectively, Arizona),
Alan Cranston (Democrat – California), Donald Riegle (Democrat –
Michigan), and John Glenn (Democrat – Ohio). They were accused of
providing illicit favors for major donor Charles H. Keating Jr., the owner
of a failed California Savings and Loan, in 1987, including arranging
meetings with key regulators handling the ‘‘bailout’’ of his business
(Thompson, 1993). Donald E. ‘‘Buz’’ Lukens (Republican – Ohio) was
convicted in 1996 of bribery and conspiracy while a Member of the
House; Lukens had been voted out of office in 1990 in the aftermath
of a sex scandal (United States Department of Justice, 1995; Political
Graveyard, 2004). Rep. Jim Wright (Democrat – Texas), Speaker of
the House, resigned in 1989 following an investigation of book royalties
he received and a job that had been offered to his wife by a private
businessman; the investigation was spearheaded by future Speaker
Newt Gingrich (Republican – Georgia) who himself became the focus
of ethics allegations in the mid-1990s (Williams, 2000: ch. 5). The FBI’s
1978–80 ‘‘Operation ABSCAM’’ (bureaucratese for ‘‘Arab Scam’’)
videotaped politicians accepting cash from agents of a fictitious Arab
sheik in a rented Philadelphia townhouse. Four Representatives were
convicted of accepting bribes, Rep. Michael ‘‘Ozzie’’ Myers (Democrat –
Pennsylvania) was expelled from the House, and Senator Harrison
Williams (Democrat – New Jersey) was also convicted and resigned
(Greene, 1981).
Other recent cases include Rep. Albert Bustamante (Democrat –
Texas), convicted in 1993 for racketeering and bribery, and Rep. Jay
Kim (Republican – California), who pleaded guilty in 1997 to receiving
over $230,000 in illegal campaign contributions. Rep. Nicholas
Mavroules was sentenced to prison in 1993 for tax fraud and accepting
gratuities; Rep. Dan Rostenkowski, a powerful Illinois Democrat, was