If ever there was evidence that the United States is hypersensitive to political corruption, it came with the Dec. 6 announcement that a special counsel would begin examining whether House Speaker Newt Gingrich breached the tax code when he used tax-deductible contributions to underwrite his teaching of a college class. Now compare the Gingrich troubles and other Washington scandals, including former Sen. David Durenberger’s recent sentence of one year’s probation for submitting $ 3,825 in phony expenses to the Senate, to a few that have recently ensnared politicians around the world. Raul Salinas, the brother of the former president of Mexco, is in prison on murder charges and now faces questions about an $ 84 million bank account he maintained in Switzerland. Then there’s the former president of South Korea, Roh Tae Woo, who was indicted on Dec. 4 after admitting he received $ 654 million from businessmen to create a political slush fund. The grand prize for dipping into the national kitty goes to the president of Zaire, Mobutu Sese Seko, who during his 30-year tenure is estimated to have enriched himself to the tune of $ 5 billion, though as far as we know he has never been examined by a special counsel. Notwithstanding the howling by Perotistas that Washington is awash in special-interest money, the U.S. federal government still seems orders of magnitude less corrupt than just about anywhere else.
