As a young journalist working the community as a reporter on the grass roots level for a daily newspaper, I saw the application of nepotism by those in power, I witnessed those on the take for community projects, I saw the immorality of the dirty backroom deals and witnessed the criminality of those that got a pass and those that didn’t.
It didn’t take long for me to come to the conclusion that if this was taking place on the grass roots level of community government, with a population, in many instances of less than 25,000, what might it be as these politicians moved on to the county and state level and perhaps on to the national scene as a Congressman or Senator or for that matter a President.
My conclusion: they couldn’t get there without being crooks – yes criminals. But many played the game well and never got caught, others obviously did and you know about them.
One of my grass roots contacts on this level was Harry Sears. When I knew him he was the attorney for the Hanover Township Committee in Morris County New Jersey. A rather personable individual always accessible to the media. I liked the guy. He was elected to the New Jersey Senate in 1970 and later indicted on SEC charges along with Robert Vesco, a client of his.
Sears turned out to be a political operative, a’ bag man’ moving money between Vesco and the Nixon administration. Vesco, was never apprehended, fled to Cuba where he was sent to jail on drug charges, eventually dying of lung cancer. Sears worked out a plea deal with the government. He died at the age of 82.
All of the politicians I met in those days were not crooked. Many wanted to honestly do their civic duty, and those that I remembered most served the community without reimbursement and were not on the take. They were few. Some moved into State politics, but to the best of my knowledge they were clean, as I might call them.
As many others moved on within the system it was impossible for them to stay clean, from the standpoint of morality or criminality.
Today, Politico broke a story about former President Bill Clinton who was working a deal here in Florida last week to persuade Rep. Kendrick Meek to drop out of the race for Senate and he nearly succeeded.
Bill Clinton, the classic character of morality, having sex with an intern in the oval office and convicted of perjury, tried to make a deal with Meek to drop out of the race and endorse Gov. Charlie Crist’s independent bid in a last-ditch effort to stop Marco Rubio, the Republican nominee who is on the cusp of national stardom.
Should the public know what all of this is about? You bet. It’s power and money. It’s not morality. It’s Chicago politics. Did the White House know about this deal? You bet. They had knowledge of the deal and viewed it as a path to capturing the Senate seat, but did not initiate the talks.
You see, it’s immorality or criminality, one leading to the other or the other leading to the other.
But the Obama administration knew that a deal was in the works while the president himself was campaigning for Meek only last week. Apparently the deal, despite its temptations, and Meek’s confusions about saying yes and no and yes and finally no was not good enough.
Yes, this is what it was like on the grass roots level when I covered it in Morris County New Jersey, and it’s no different today on the national scene.
3 users commented in " Does The Culture Of Politics Spawn Immorality, Criminality? "
Follow-up comment rss or Leave a TrackbackYou see, it is also immoral to accuse individuals of criminal activity without any shred of evidence. If your evidence is an article in Politico or any other unsubstantiated media source I would say you practice shoddy journalism.
How do you know that the Obama administration knew of any deals that may or may not have taken place? The only conversation that Meeks described was one between himself and Crist. If you have any proof of Clinton offering a deal, let’s see it.
The only thing you’re right about is referring to power and money and politics. But why Chicago politics? It’s politics, period.
I think it’s interesting that Bill Clinton is one of the most respected politicians in the country. Not only my opinion.
As far as what may be considered immoral sexual activity of any individual I would agree with, “let him who is without sin cast the first stone.”
In response to Norman’s comments, I can’t believe one would ever say that Bill Clinton is a respected politician. He was (& still is in my opinion) a disgrace to our country.
As usual you read allegations into what is not written. As you might note in the headline the question is asked: “Does The Culture of Politics Spawn Immorality, Criminality? No accusations of criminality were made in the Clinton-Meek failed backroom deal.
The New York Times said on Thursday in an article written by Shear and Zeleny, “Former President Bill Clinton last week almost succeeded in persuading Kendrick B. Meek, the Democratic nominee for the Senate in Florida, to drop out of the three-way race — but Mr. Meek changed his mind at the last minute, a spokesman for Mr. Clinton said Thursday evening.”
The spokesman according to the Times was Matt McKenna. He said Clinton was ‘urging him to drop out and endorse Charlie Crist,’ the state’s Republican governor, who is running for the senate as an independent. The Times said ‘the back-channel efforts by Clinton’ were apparently an effort to prevent the state’s Senate seat from falling into the hands of Marco Rubio, the Republican.”
Meek said, “Any rumor or statement by anyone that says that I made a decision to get out of the race is inaccurate.”
Clinton on the Today Show did not deny that such discussions took place, but he said he would allow Mr. Meek to describe what took place.
Aides to Clinton said the White House was not involved in the discussions. And, even the Times quoted Politico reporting that the White House was aware of the conversations between Clinton and Meek but that it did not initiate them.
When White House press secretary was asked about the discussions, he responded by e-mail saying, “Don’t know anything about it.”
An official close to Clinton said the discussions were first initiated by Crist, who called Doug Band, top adviser to Clinton, according to the Times.
I don’t think I need to explain why it was that I cited Chicago as a place that leads in spawning a negative or corrupt political culture.
As for Clinton being “one of the most respected politicians in the country”, it depends upon how you define respect and politician. Yes, he was pretty good at making backroom deals; but when it came to getting Osama bin Laden, when he had the opportunity, he didn’t; his handling of the US Embassy bombings in Nairobi was appalling; and his response, or lack thereof, to the attack on the USS Cole and the death of 17 sailors was preposterous. Justice has yet to be served on the latter issue. Perhaps there were too many other distractions at the time in the Oval office?
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