The hubris of corrupt politicians
Learning from Virginia's Bob McDonnell and the many low-level schemers of Illinois
By James Warren, September 7, 2014"I think Jefferson Would be Appalled . . . It’s so Illinois.”
Friday’s front-page Washington Post headline captured the righteous passion of a humanities scholar and Thomas Jefferson expert after the conviction of former Virginia Gov. Robert McDonnell and his wife for public corruption.
Since CNN was devoting itself to the passing of Joan Rivers, I turned to NBC’s Washington station. It offered exemplary coverage of a spectacle that, whether or not “Illinois,” revealed the conniving banality of our political class.
McDonnell and his wife, whom he utterly maligned in an odd defense, took lots of stuff from a wheeler-dealer Virginia businessman who was hawking a dietary supplement and looking for state largess.
Prosecutors put at $177,000 the value of golf outings, vacations, sweetheart loans and catering for a McDonnell daughter’s wedding paid by the businessman. Jurors didn’t take long to convict.
And this was long after prosecutors offered McDonnell a deal in which he’d plead guilty to one small count of lying on a loan application. There’d be no mention of fraud, his wife would be spared and the prospect of daughters sobbing openly in court would be averted.
A once fair-haired political star opted for a melancholy five weeks in court, including a total of 24 hours he spent on the witness stand. That might seem startling, but it’s rather understandable if you know the anthropology of white-collar defendants.
But let’s get back to the Illinois business.
This was the first Virginia governor even indicted for a crime, which is so un-Illinois. Multiple Illinois governors have gone to jail, with the most famous being goofy Rod Blagojevich, onetime contestant on Donald Trump’s “Celebrity Apprentice.”
As telling, more than two dozen Chicago aldermen alone have been sent packing in recent decades.
Their sagas often turned on far more routine skullduggery than McDonnell’s, as perhaps Chicago’s very own Barack Obama might concur.
For example, there’s also the late U.S. Rep. Dan Rostenkowski, once an iconic powerhouse in Congress. The Chicagoan utilized federal money to purchase ashtrays for friends and hawked officially purchased stamps for cash at the House post office.
Then there’s Robert Cooley, a Chicago mob attorney who bought off judges and other state court personnel for sums mostly ranging from $100 to $1,000. Even factoring in inflation, those are K-Mart prices.
Most aldermen self-immolated by dousing themselves in piddling sums. They’d be jealous of the $6,500 Rolex watch bought for McDonnell, the loan of a Ferrari, a $20,000 New York shopping spree for his wife and the $15,000 catering bill.
None concocted quite as contorted a defense as McDonnell. He segued from suggesting his wife was off-kilter to arguing that their marriage was in such tatters, they could not have conspired to do anything.
He and other witnesses portrayed Maureen McDonnell as a “nutbag,” as one put it graciously, while so trashing her we’d need Waste Management Inc. to pick up the debris.
She did not testify, though three of five children did. Of course, none of them would have been there if he’d accepted a deal.
And that’s the most curious matter of all.
White-collar criminal defendants often display a self-confidence bordering on hubris, former prosecutors remind me. Whether it’s insider trading or political cases, most have achieved a lot in life and can’t believe somebody really thinks they did anything illegal.
Some white-collar folks study federal sentencing guidelines, do the math and cut deals. They know that going to trial would hike their sentences sharply if they were found guilty and that the vast percentage of federal trials result in guilty verdicts.
Politicians can be different.
They are convinced of their ability to persuade. Aided by their consultants and aides, they may take positions they don’t really believe in but think will get them elected.
They often differ from, say, financial crimes defendants and can thus be tricky for a defense lawyer. They’ll readily adopt positions they think will sell.
But the 12 voters on McDonnell’s jury didn’t buy his pitch. He lost this election.
Then, again, even “Honest Abe” Lincoln lost elections, though he avoided wearing an orange jumpsuit.
Bob, that’s so Illinois, too.
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