As children many of us were told the story of George Washington telling his father he could not tell a lie and admitted to chopping down the cherry tree. Although the story is apocryphal, it reflects the idea the honesty is a quality our leaders should have. Thanks to the Supreme Court, honesty in politics has been so narrowed so that actions any normal person would consider a bribe isn’t one.
In an essay, former DOJ attorney Leo J. Wise, who prosecuted Enron, Hunter Biden, and many others writes of how the Supreme Court has narrowed the concept of bribery so that corrupt officials walk free. A former governor gets off because making arrangements for a cool $175K were not “official acts.” Talk about sophistry!
And those of us who don’t have the dollars or the clout sit and fume. A president gets a special plane which will be his personal property after he leaves office, and the Qataris who gave it to him get special deals. Wise and many in the DOJ public integrity unit refused or resigned when told to drop charges against former NYC Mayor Adams. That unit in DOJ no longer exists, shuttered this year.
As Wise points out, the creeping acceptance of corruption has occurred over the last 40 years. Corruption filters down so that many of us just shrug our shoulders. But no government can survive if the overwhelming majority of its citizens see it as corrupt. We’ve come a long way from little George, for sure.
Prayer for the Day
As in ancient Israel, you call us to do justice, O God,
But our leaders and courts turn their backs on you;
As in ages before, you call us to show no preference,
But those with money use it for their advantage.
Heeding not your command, we ignore the lessons of history,
That corrupt regimes will fall and the people will suffer.
In the name of the One who spoke against the corrupt,
Even Christ Jesus our Lord, Amen.
Thoughts for the Day
This isn’t partisan politics; it’s political elites protecting political elites. The facts in these cases were egregious, but the Court purported to be saving hapless bureaucrats from overzealous prosecutors in the future. In any event, they haven’t. Instead they’ve told juries of ordinary Americans that what they concluded to be corruption was not.
Leo J. Wise, “How Corruption Got This Bad,” The Atlantic
You shall appoint judges and officials throughout your tribes,
In all the towns that the Lord your God is giving you,
And they shall render just decisions for the people.
You must not distort justice; you must not show partiality;
And you must not accept bribes, for a bribe blinds the eyes
Of the wise and subverts the cause those who are in the right.
Justice, and only justice, shall you pursue,
So that you may live and occupy the land the Lord your God is giving you.
Deuteronomy 16: 18-20.