Seems I read a whole lot more than I comment lately. But this debate on honest officeholders seems to be lacking some very basic logic. There haven't been a lot of convictions. And the ones they squeaked out were for VERY petty crimes. No one is on the take from some crime boss. No one is running numbers (well, unless you count the state lottery). Somehow this all reminds me of the impeachment of Clinton for allegedly getting his member polished in a back hall. That one turned out to be worth $40 million, at least so far as Republicans are concerned.
To Mr. Atherton I would simply say that when you have a society that holds dear a notion that life can be ABOUT money, why affect shock that it pervades politics? First, get a society in which values are decent. THEN expect the politics to be decent. We can hardly expect politics to rise ABOVE the general level of society. Nor do we experience the same shock when we read over and over of the $100 million GW Bush raises for campaigns. Why is it that $100 million means so little and $4000 means so MUCH? See, that's the key to the issue, that nearly invisible line between legal and illegal influence peddling. You'll have "honest politicians" when ALL influence peddling is made legal. And you might not be an old, old man when that comes about. But society itself will simply have succumbed to its venality. ===== Jim Mork -- Cooper Neighborhood ________________________________ Help stop spam -- Join SpamCon Foundation, http://www.spamcon.org __________________________________________________ Do you Yahoo!? Yahoo! Mail Plus - Powerful. Affordable. Sign up now. http://mailplus.yahoo.com _______________________________________ Minneapolis Issues Forum - A City-focused Civic Discussion - Mn E-Democracy Post messages to: mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] Subscribe, Unsubscribe, Digest, and more: http://e-democracy.org/mpls
