Separating the Schneiderman from his Schneiderdeeds

Trump’s rage naturally spilled over to Twitter, where the president blamed everyone but himself for his problems. The investigation was a setup from the start, Trump insists, a partisan assassination attempt by the politically motivated. New York Democrats fashioned a cudgel from the legal system, then proceeded to beat the president’s brains out because they don’t like his policies, so the story goes.

Schneiderman’s motivations can’t be known with certainty. But a safe guess is that the Democrat wanted to make more of himself. (AG stands for “Aspiring Governor,” as they say.) This isn’t a bad thing. Before news broke that he allegedly choked, hit, and slapped around women, Schneiderman — monster that he is — started an investigation that ultimately helped bring to light the corrupt dealings of the president’s charity.

There was the time the Trump Foundation bankrolled the Trump campaign. Ahead of the Iowa caucuses, the charity bankrolled an event for veterans and the troops in that state the same day that Trump skipped a primary debate. Thinking it something of an ATM, then-campaign manager Corey Lewandowsky even asked if “there [is] any way we can make some disbursements this week while in Iowa?”

There were times the Trump Foundation paid for beautification projects. The largest charitable check ever cut, a $264,231 gift to the Central Park Conservancy, went to repair a fountain outside Trump’s Plaza Hotel. A generous gift with an immediate beneficiary: himself.

There were times the Trump Foundation just took care of the little things. The smallest check it ever cut was for just $7, the cost to enroll a young Donald Trump Jr. in the Boy Scouts of America in 1989.

For more, read my boss, Tim Carney, who details the graft and also comes to an ugly but accurate conclusion: “Sometime between the publications of the Starr Report and the Access Hollywood recordings, Americans decided that we don’t care about the character of our statesmen.”

What is a conservative to do in a situation where the most pusillanimous man has been chosen to rule? For starters, say thanks for the external and internal controls that channel the ambitions of even the most unangelic men into the public good. The Trump Foundation fiasco provides a perfect example.

Self-interest certainly drove Schneider’s actions, and Trump had his own set of complicated incentives when he set up his charity. But our system of government hasn’t fallen apart without a George Washington at the helm. It doesn’t need wholly virtuous leaders. Just ambitious ones. Set aside his motivations for a moment. Schneiderman did good by exposing the rot at the Trump Foundation.

The trick of self-government is getting fallen men and women to govern for the common good rather than themselves. It doesn’t always work. But the fact that the president was held accountable shows that even bad politicians can be compelled to do good things in our constitutional system of government.