“At bottom,” writes the lawyer for indicted former New York Assembly Speaker Sheldon Silver, “what the Government objects to in this case is not actual federal crimes but rather longstanding features of New York state government that the U.S. Attorney finds distasteful.”
This line has infuriated the editors at the New York Daily News:
The Daily News editorialists are correct to find it infuriating that Silver is defending his corruption as legal — but that doesn’t mean his corruption is illegal.
One imagines Sen. Bob Menendez’s defense will be similar: Yes, a major donor got special access to Menendez, and Menendez exerted extraordinary effort to advance policies that would enrich that donor, but that’s a matter for Menendez and his voters — it doesn’t actually violate the law. …
Here’s the thing: Silver and my hypothetical Menendez have decent points. You would be outlawing most of Congress if you made it illegal to give special consideration to campaign donors.
That’s how Congress works. That’s how Hillary Clinton works, that’s how Chuck Schumer works, that’s how Harry Reid works, that’s how Charlie Rangel works, that’s how Obamacare passed. Many parts of the GOP work that way, too.
The scandal is not that Congressmen are occasionally found breaking the law. The scandal, as they say, is what’s legal.
I just began reading a great new book on this very topic this weekend, A Republic No More, by Jay Cost. So far, it’s a very good read, if you enjoy getting furious on how self-dealing and self-serving our political class can be, while still staying on this side of the law.
