How widespread do you think political corruption is in the U.S.?

When someone is in a position of power, it is easy for him or her to believe that there is nothing they cannot do or have.  The only thing that keeps these people from being corrupt is the fear of being caught and prosecuted.  Too often we have caught politicians being dishonest but they are not held to account as you and I would be.  This is particularly evident in the case of presidential wrong-doing.  Gerald Ford set a dangerous precedent when he pardoned Nixon.  He essentially took Nixon's bizarre statement "If the president does it, it's not illegal" and made it fact.  If the holder of the highest trust in the nation violates that trust and is not held accountable, who then will be?  You and me, that's who.  Just sayin'

It seems that anything goes in politics and usually does. When I vote for someone, I expect honesty & integrity as primary in their ethics. It seems that the longer someone is in office, the more they feel that they are immune to behaving ethically. I have a theory about long term politicians. They eventually make a fatal mistake that ends their political careers. This applies at the local, state & federal levels. When they are caught, they are not only disgraced & some are arrogant when they refuse to resign.  Senator Stevens, Craig are great examples to arrogance.

I think i hate most is when someone is caught, usually that party envolved usualy try to cover up or pretend they no nothing about it. Fine example is when freddie Mac the housing market turned up their heals , right away the senate and house tried to cover it up rather the dealing with it, becuse 2 of their top congressmen were deeply envolved in. This why there should be term limits to both house and senate just like there is for the president. It was decided after fdr ran his 4 terms, harry truman said enough is enough, he saw what could happen if some one was in there to long. The congress people fill theri pockets at our bank accounts. Its just like their trying to bail out the car people, why don't they start with reduction in payroll to the high muckie-mucks and then reduce union salarys! We don't need to bail out the RICH.

when i first read the title i got a nice chuckle out of it. when you think about it, it is somewhat humorous that he would sell the senate seat to the highest bidder. but then you have to look deeper into the situation. blagojevich started his career in the same spot as one Mr. Barack Obama. where you ask? in the pocket of Tony Rezka. who is Tony Rezka? some call him a slum lord, the feds call him a criminal. soon he is going to be another statistic in a prison. he was indicted by the federal gov't for business fraud and influence peddling involving the administration of blagojevich. they dont hand those out on a whim, just ask mike vick. lets not forget that obama turned to rezka when he needed help purchasing his home in 2005, and yes he was under federal investigation, and yes barack obama knew this. he admitted it. obama represented rezka legally, he funneled money to his public housing projects-- which are failing miserably. is anyone seeing a pattern here? whats going on illinois? this is just the tip of the ice berg. obama's suspect relationships make up too long of a list to discuss in one post. as espn page 2 writer bill simmons, the sportsguy, would say.. "ladies and gentleman, your 2009 President of the United States!" hmm.. my only advice is to keep both hands on your wallets

Illinois is one of the most corrupt states in America. And Chicago is one of the most corrupt cities. The Democratic machine has controlled the state for many years and will continue to do so as long as the majority of its citizens will vote for the picks of the machine leaders. Added to this, the last Republican governor was also corrupt. Perhaps that is why they let him be elected.

But selling a US Senate seat is a new low for Illinois. Wake up Illinoisians !!!

Good News from Louisiana -- Jefferson "Cold cash in mah freeza" was FINALLY voted out. Another politician that should be sitting in jail not in public office.

Looking forward to the seeing Barney Frank, Chris Dodd and the other FM/FM crooks do the perp walk.

There is some good ones out there, but very few and those are mainly the women.  It's just a fact.   Most whom go bad go bad after entering office, the money is too tempting.  Most blacks are corrupted before getting elected, just a fact folks. 

As long as private campaign contributions are permitted, corruption and favortism will continue to persist over ethics.

Power corrupts... it's a "natural law." My question to the "feds" is "who's guarding the Praetorin Guard?"

ooops! PraetoriAn

Come on to Ohio, Youngstown; James Trafficant gets out soon.  Cuyahoga County, Cleveland Ohio, Jimmy Dimora and Frank Russo along with CMHA, Cleveland Metro Housing Authority.  Then there are judges involved.  Lets not forget the prosecutors office, he was college room-ates with a political figure named O'Malley.  O'Malley was a wife beater and NEVER brought to justice.  Now he is getting just deserts in Federal Prison for having kiddie Porn on his computer, at work of course.  Bill Mason must be sweating up a storm.  Oh and let us not forget the 'gift givers' and people all these above named got jobs for.  C'mon, from pumping gas at 10.00 an hour to a 70,000.00 a year job.  WITH no college or experience.  LOOK at or GOOGLE Jimmy Dimora or Frank Russo.  True corruption.  Both are living lavish lifestyles.  Which will soon be traded in for a cold cell...  THE FBI in July of 2008 raided local goverment offices.  All of which there was about 200 FBI agents that swarmed offies all over the County, State and other municipalities so there would not be an immediate phone call to other office's to burn the goods/paperwork....

When a Senator is convicted of 7 Felonies, Makes National headlines, doesnt appologize for his actions, and he's not in jail, that should just about be all that needs to be said.

When the electorate figures out that they can vote themselves benefits from the public treasury, its game over for a democracy.  Thats why the constitution establishes a Republic, with checks and balances.  The checks and balances have failed, and our current Congress is happily looting the treasury with help from the treasury secretary and the Fed.  Obama is faced with an impossible task.  He will fail.  He has appointed a new treasury secretary who can successfully argue that he knows alot about the current economic problems by virtue of the FACT that he personally helped create and cause them for the benefit of non economically valuable "service" providers of banks and Wall Street firms.  And now he wants to be paid to fix the problems he created.  He should be forced to pay DOUBLE taxes on his wealth before taking office instead of the NO taxes benefit when he cashes out as chairman of the New York Fed.  Paulson should be arrested and stripped of all wealth.

What ever happened to this story?  It seems like it was taken off the radar quickly.

"(CBS/ AP) Government officials handling billions of dollars in oil royalties engaged in illicit sex with employees of energy companies they were dealing with and received numerous gifts from them, federal investigators said Wednesday."

It is scandelous that those WE the people elect to govern, lead and protect us get a free pass when they break the law.  The laws are there to keep us safe - but if the law only applies to some then what good is it?  The Vice Presdient of the USA can go into the woods and shoot someone and all he has to do is say "I'm sorry'!?  I may still be young, but if what my college professors are teaching me is correct, then the Vice President should have been brought up on charges and arrested - not given a slap on the wrist a few years ago.  And now...now when we have a new President - whom we can only hope won't get as corrupted as previous ones have - we have another scandel, this time about the President-Elect's vacent Senate Seat?! I can't believe it!! We, the land of the free, are probably the most corrupt nation!!  Our leaders don't bother to follow their own legistration.  Why then do they make these law?   Are they just trying to make us feel safe, while they run around and do whatever they like?  This is absurb.  I bet the Founder's of this nation would be furious with what's become of our once great land.   When a government no longer has respect for its own laws, the only conclusion that can be made is that, that government has lost its respect for those who put it in power in the first place.  Our nations Founder's were fought to free us from a corrupt government and now 200+ years later, our government has become the very thing that they were fighting.  It's discusting.  Power leads only to the lust for more.  If our elected leaders think that they are better than us, they are sadly mistaken.  We are the ones who elected them, and We are the one's they must think of.  They only have the power they have due to us.  If we so choose, we have the power and the right to kick their sorry butts out of office - and they better start realizing that.   We have the power to change how our governments act - simply by choosing whose sitting in the decision making seat.  But we have become too busy to give a care.  It appears that only time, most of us even care what our leaders are doing, is when they do something that shames us.  We put them in power, so we had better keep a closer eye on what they do.  Power corrupts those that have it, but if the corrupted know we're watching them, maybe there's a hope that things will change. 

Why else would someone spend 10 Million dollars of their own money to get a job that pays a little over $160,000. It's for the power baby, and with power comes corruption. Look at all the "political" dynasties we have in this country now, the Kennedy's, Clinton's, Bush's etc.. It's never ending.

In Palm Beach County Florida we have two County Commissions in jail for corruption who also took down influential individuals in the county who conspired with them.  The longer they stay in office the more likely the power and influence will corrupt them.  Our forefathers were brilliant men who set down a system of government we should all be proud of. But I don't think that they would have wanted our elected officials to make public office a career.  I believe term limits and limits on the number of offices held will bring the system closer to what they would have envisioned for us.  Leaders who are people connected with everyday life and who take time out of their lives to serve, wanting to return to a better life and society when their service is over.  People, who in office, work to make a difference not work to be re-elected.

Even as a little girl I used to say that if anyone got elected to (a higher level) office, they should automatically go to jail because they had to have done something wrong to get that far.  I believe it more so now.  It's enough to make me want to be dictator, but I have too much laundry to do.

I have worked in goverment for 30 yrs. The things I have seen and experienced would be unbelievable unless you were there yourself, and even then you would have to pinch your self. Accountibility is the key. I warned some very high level indivduals along time ago that technology will eventually force politicians and there loyal appointee's to be accountable for their decisions and actions.

There's frustration with Gotham City, but colleggirl24 has it right: we elect them over and over.  Let'a look at our own lives for government corruption.  They have bought us in a thousand little ways: guaranteed wages, social security, a nice government job with the IRS or the Dept of Fatherland Security, medicaid, welfare, occupational safety, and the like.  SAY NO TO IT.  They bribe us to get reelected and we take the "freebies," and wonder why they think of us as dumb sheep to be fleeced.  WE ARE! Riddle me this Batman: Can WE say no to their currupting influence even though we have no guarrantee the next guy will turn down that government job with attractive benefits?  A yes means there is hope for us, a NO means we are already lap dogs to the bastards we dispise up there.  Now let's do this also: Next election forget about the President and focus on being or electing a congressman that will clip the wings of all government back to constitutional size.  VOTE THEM ALL OUT.  BE THE CHANGE YOU SEEK.