Corruption gone?

Democrats are back in action. After a few years of Republican majority, the Democrats have now taken over. An article in the Christian Science Monitor states that the new dominating party wants to make it clear that their message is understood by the people. They want to assure the population that they promise a different approach on leadership. They want it to be: open, bipartisan and above reproach – a program based on the needs of the average American household. However, critics believed that what the party lacked was a quick, clean anticorruption element. In response, Nancy Pelosi, House Democratic leader, promised last January to install an ethical package if Democrats took back the House. The package included a ban on all gifts from lobbyists, disclosure of earmarks, and a two-year wait before lawmakers leaving office can work as lobbyists. She, also, wrote a letter to Speaker J. Dennis Hastert telling him to operate quickly to deal with the Republican culture of corruption. In the letter, she states three steps she believes Hastert should take by the time the second session of the 109th Congress came around.
However, while Pelosi is promoting this “ethical package,” it seems as though “she has no real commitment to changing culture of corruption,” says Melanie Sloan, executive director of Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington. Pelosi supports Rep. John Murtha of Pennsylvania, "one of the most unethical members of Congress” as described by Sloan. Murtha has struggled with accusations that he possibly accepted favors from defense contractors. Also, he reportedly had a “less-than-decisive rejection” of an enticement in the 1980 Abscam FBI sting operation. Additionally, he greatly opposes reforms to ethics reform. With Pelosi assisting him, it appears that “she may have prioritized ethics reform merely to win votes, with no real commitment to changing the culture of corruption,” again, says Sloan.

Still, corruption is something that has been occurring from times even before the American Revolution. Some noticeable cases of corruption occurred during the colonial era. Most corporate and royal placemen believed they had the right to take as much as possible before returning home. For example, Governor Benjamin Fletcher of New York (1692-1698) took protection money from pirates, shook down Indian traders, deceived the customs, expanded military payrolls, and stole funds raised to pay the provincial debt. "To recount all his arts of squeezing money both out of the publick and private purses would make a volume instead of a letter," said one of Fletcher's contemporaries. Also, during 1988, gross sales of illegal drugs were higher than combined profits of large corporations. Let's hope that one day corruption will cease to exist.