Welcome to the Swamp

Secret Empires: How Our Politicians Hide Corruption and Enrich Their Families and Friends – Peter Schweizer – (Harper)

Have you ever wondered how a hick from Searchlight, Nevada can go from the comfortable middle class to owning a multi-million dollar condo at the Washington, DC Ritz Carlton? (Harry Reid) Or how a guy from Delaware who never had a private sector job and was always in elective office could own a multi-million dollar house? (Joe Biden) Or how any number of the offspring from elected officials, who by and large are screwups, seem to magically land high paying, high profile jobs or become partners in big firms?

Welcome to the Swamp! Peter Schweizer, the president of the Government Accountability Institute, investigative journalist and bestselling author once again details the inner workings of just how corrupt Washington, DC politicians are in his new book, Secret Empires: How Our Politicians Hide Corruption and Enrich Their Families and Friends. Schweizer seems to possess the magical ability to track down the finite details of the sketchy dealings and connect the dots that flesh out the stories corruption, self-enrichment and seemingly free pass these folks get when it comes to acts that would find ordinary folks starring down law enforcement types from any number of Federal agencies.

Schweizer does an incredible job of stringing these stories together and he sets in sites on folks from both sides of the aisle, because neither Democrats nor Republicans have cornered the market on being virtuous. Unfortunately for taxpayers, this kind of nefarious activity is nothing new. Tales of scummy politicians steering business to family members, lobbying and legal firm that employ family members or guiding legislation to the benefit of family member’s business concerns is a time honored tradition. It does take much to find stories of dirtbags like the late Congressman John Murtha steering favorable defense contracts to the clients of his brother’s lobbying firm or Arlen Specter’s son benefitting from legal work at his Philadelphia firm.

Rather than just lamenting these shady deals, Schweizer suggests steps that can be taken to address, correct and eliminate this stuff outright. Here’s the problem; the actions to address the problem would take legislative action, and what’s the likelihood that the swamp would punch their own meal ticket?