Download Corrupt Politicians

Denise Yu
National Attorneys General Convention (Montana)
Hillsborough High School
Corrupt Politicians
Political corruption is as timeless as a Rolex. As long as democracy has been around in
America, so too has the bad egg in the government who tries to bend the political process to his
own gain. Take, for example, three case studies:
In 1872, a company called Credit Mobilier was a government contract firm. The firm
was bribing members of Congress in return for government favors. In reality, the company was
just a front set up to increase the profits of shareholders. Representative Oakland Ames (R-MA)
granted Credit Mobilier a no-bid contract to build a railroad, and Ames sold shares to his
colleagues at discounted prices. As the railroad business flourished, so did the Credit Mobilier
stock. There was one problem: Credit Mobilier never built one foot of railroad. Millions of
dollars in illicit profits were uncovered following media scrutiny, and the first anti-corruption
laws were created in 1876.
The end of the Great War brought a wave of economic prosperity and with it, an
undercurrent of corruption. President Harding’s Interior Secretary Albert Fall leased
government-owned oil fields to two millionaires. Democratic Senator John B. Kendrick cried
foul when he heard that the land, which had originally been set aside for fuel for naval vessels,
had been secretly leased. His informal inquiries yielded no information, so he pursued a
resolution to further investigate the transaction. The Interior Department admitted to leasing the
property without bids. Secretary Fall’s explanation placated many Congressmen, but not Senator
Robert Lafollette. He began a series of investigations that was concluded by Senator Thomas J.
Walsh. The prodding revealed perjury, influence buying, hush money, coded telegrams,
unsecured loans, briefcases filled with cash and bonds, secret meetings, among other clandestine
activities. The entire scandal, nicknamed Teapot Dome after one of the illegally-leased oil sites,
died on its own, but allegations of corruption lived on. Fall was eventually found guilty of
bribery.
The Watergate Scandal is one of the most commonly-cited cases of political corruption.
Unlike the Credit Mobilier and Teapot Dome scandals, Watergate concerned not money, but
dirty trickery on the part of powerful officials. Members of the Nixon administration were found
to have broken into the Democratic National Committee Headquarters, where they planted and
then tried to fix wiretaps that were not working. The scandal revealed the White House dirty
tricks squad, a secret campaign fund associated with the Committee to Re-elect the President,
involvement in backhanded actions by high-level officials such as the Attorney General, among
other embarrassing discoveries. Watergate is significant for setting off a knee-jerk reaction of
reforms targeting corruption and abuse in political campaigns and in the government as a whole.
Several pieces of legislation have been passed to address corrupt politics. The Freedom
of Information Act, signed on Independence Day in 1966, which requires that legislative
documents be made publicly accessible. Different states practice this political transparency to
different degrees, some even allowing the public to observe public government meetings. Public
presence creates political accountability for lawmakers. The decision to abstain from freedom of
information legislation stipulates that the burden of proof be on the party being asked, not the
individual seeking the information, and failure to disclose said information requires a valid
reason. In the 1970s, the Public Integrity Section of the government was created in the Justice
Department. In 1978, the Inspector General introduced protection legislation for government
whistleblowers and installed inspectors general in various Cabinet departments and government
agencies. The Ethics in Government Act followed that same year, setting guidelines for
investigation of allegations of corruption where high-level executive branch officials are
concerned. It also created financial transparency requirements for former-governmentemployees-turned-lobbyists. All sources of income, including stocks, bonds, property,
investments or debts, spouse’s income, and other positions in business or nonprofit organizations
held by all members of the Executive Branch must be disclosed under the provisions of the Act.
It also set limitations on former government employees’ involvement in the lobbyist sphere. In
2002, Senators John McCain and Russ Feingold introduced the Bipartisan Campaign Reform
Act, which aimed at corruption, specifically bribery from lobbyists, in political campaigns.
Montana is just as much concerned with political corruption as any other state. Corrupt
politicians are a national and nonpartisan problem. The Democratic Party aims to change ethics
and lobbying policies, and “restore honest leadership and open government”. The Democrats’
proposals include raising transparency levels for lawmakers and lobbyists in regards to their
activities and relationships. Criminal punishment will be doled out in the event of failure to
comply. The Democrats additionally want to prohibit lobbyists from funding Congressional
travel and meal expenses as well as increasing the waiting period before Congressmen can
become lobbyists. They also want to expand on the lobbyist eligibility provisions of the Ethics
in Government Act of 1978. Negotiations for private-sector employment, a twenty-four-hour
review period after legislation is approved, government contracts, and no-bid contracting are
other areas targeted for increased transparency clauses.
Political corruption must be addressed from several different angles. First, the National
Attorneys General Convention must find a means of enforcing existing anti-corruption
legislation, with the goal of deterring future corruption. Included in this aspect are adequate
investigation and prosecution procedures. Second, corruption must be prevented where possible.
Whistleblower protection laws, stringent transparency rules, freedom-of-information laws,
auditing and internal-control requirements for both public and private organizations, and antimoney-laundering vigilantes can ferret out corrupt practices. Finally, the government must adopt
a culture that emphasizes positive standards and vilifies corruption, thus strengthening the
enforcement and prevention efforts. Political corruption may be a weed in a democratic
government, but by combining these three facets, the National Attorneys General Convention
can effectively fight and uproot corruption, one politician at a time.