Crime pays for corrupt politicians

In the 2006 Congressional election campaigns, Democrats derided what they called a ?culture of corruption,? cultivated and condoned by the Republicans.

In case you missed it, Democrats aren?t exactly amateurs when it comes to cashing in on corruption ??at taxpayers expense.?Of 17 convicted former legislators still drawing or eligible to draw their yearly pensions in the future, 13 are Democrats.

According to the National Taxpayers? Union, these Democratic scofflaws slopping at the trough of our national treasury include:?Rep. James Trafficant, D-Ohio, $40,000; convicted of several corruption charges in 2002.?Rep. Joe Kolter, D-Pa., $47,000; convicted of fraud and conspiracy in 1996.?Rep. Mary Rose Oakar, D-Ohio, $54,000; convicted of financial disclosure irregularities in 1998.?Rep. Mario Biaggi, D-N.Y., $60,000; convicted of mail fraud and bribery in 1988.?? Rep. Carrol Hubbard, D-Ky., $61,500; convicted of fraud and corruption in 1994.? Rep. Austin J. Murphy, D-Pa., $78,000; convicted of voter fraud in 1999.? Rep. John Murphy, D-N.Y., $79,000; convicted of conspiracy and accepting unlawful gratuity in 1980.?The grand prize for most notorious and most highly compensated doer of dastardly deeds goes to Rep. Dan Rostenkowski, D-Ill., $126,000.?He was convicted of mail fraud in 1996.

These Democratic heavyweight convicted offenders are taking our hard-earned tax dollars, to the tune of some $545, 000 per year.?The other five Democrats are relative lightweights, with pensions ranging from about $8,000 to about $30,000 per year.

Reason and equanimity compel me to mention the four Republican reprobates, too.?They are, in descending order of pensions:? Sen. David Durenberger, R-Minn., $86,000.?He was convicted of fraud in a 1994 plea bargain.?Rep. Duke Cunningham, R-Calif., $64,000.He was convicted of bribery in 2005.

Rep. Bob Ney, R-Ohio, will be eligible for a nice nest egg of $29,000 a year in 2016. He was convicted of bribery and other charges in 2006.?Rep. John Rowland, R- Conn., will receive a relative pittance of $8,400 a year, beginning in 2019.?He was convicted of corruption in 2004 while serving as governor of Connecticut, thus proving that corruption is portable.

All of this shows that the ?culture of corruption,? on Capitol Hill and beyond, is not a creature conceived and cultivated by the Republicans.?It is blatantly bipartisan.?Its corrosive effects corroborate Lord Acton?s famous axiom, ?Power corrupts, and absolute power corrupts absolutely.??

It also turns the old saying, ?Crime does not pay? upside down.?When powerful politicians make up their own rules for pay and pensions, reason takes a back seat to greed and opportunism.?That is why we have these horror stories of convicted legislators and their obscene pensions.

At last, the Senate has voted 87-0 to expand the list of crimes for which a former legislator could be denied a pension, to include bribery, conspiracy and perjury.

However, this action, even if enacted into law, would cover future offenses. So, the aforementioned offenders can rest assured, as ?crime does pay? for them, for life, courtesy of you and me.

Thomas B. Vaughn is an instructor at Motlow College and co-host of the radio show ?Viewpoints,? which airs on 91.3 FM.