System Breeds Bi-Partisan Corruption

The Washington Post's front page story yesterday about West Virginia Democratic Congressman Alan Mollohan presents an imporant lesson. While Democrats like to say the corruption is limited to their enemies on the other side of the aisle, it is not.

Like the Republican Abramoff and Cunningham scandals, Mollohan's schemes involve earmarks, shell non-profits, all fueled by breathtaking personal greed. Hats off to the National Legal and Policy Center for uncovering this one.

Until policy-makers are serious about real ethics reforms that require transparency and competition in government contracts and grants, and reintroduce an arms length relationship (long gone) between the government and the recipients of its largess, we will continue to attract too many of the wrong people into public service.