“New York city had come under the control of William Macy Tweed of Tammany Hall — the infamous Boss Tweed. Tweed, a massive man with a thick beard and somber, searching eyes, had begun his career of bribery in a small way in 1859, when he and two fellow Democrats paid off a Republican politician and bought the right to name their friends as election inspectors. Within four years, Tweed had begun to drain money out of the city treasury. He held the post of Deputy Street Commissioner, which allowed him to make deals with contractors who supplied road-building materials to the city. Tweed and his co-horts decreed that the contractors were to raise the prices to the city by 35 percent over a normal profit. Of this sum, Tweed kept 25 percent and paid 10 percent to another city official. As the Tweed ring grew wealthier, it expanded its power steadily. Control of the city was assured by purchasing votes. Thousands of immigrants who could barely speak English were given citizenship and enrolled as Democrats. For a dollar or two apiece, Tweed bought their voting loyalty. Some Democrats voted two or three times, while the bribed election inspectors looked the other way. In one election, the Democratic candidate received the votes of 8 percent more New Yorkers than were listed in the whole voting population.
Tween eventually bribed the mayor of New York City, the Governor of New York State, the city and state legislatures, and countless minor officials….In 1869 all contractors doing business with the city were told to add a 100 percent overcharge to their bills and pass the extra money along to the ring. Later the fraudulent percentage went even higher. The symbol of Tweed’s misdeeds was the New York County Courthouse opposite City Hall. It was supposed to be built at a cost not exceeding $250,000, but between 1864 and 1872 some $600,000,000 was spent on the building, and $8,000,000 more was paid out for mythical work supposedly done by Tweed accomplices. The bill for carpeting the courthouse alone was $4,829, 426,26 — enough to carpet most of New York city. The plumbing contractor collected $1,508,410.89. A plasterer named Garvey billed the city for $3.500,000. The cost of forty chairs and tables was $170,279.60. All told the Tweed Ring milked the city for at least $75,000,000 between 1868 and 1871; one historian put the total losses at more that 200,000,000.”
Lloyd Robinson
The Stolen Election — pp. 89-90
By itself this argues one reason for the necessity to keep government checked. Big Government, historically speaking, has been characterized by graft. (You certainly didn’t think that recently opened Visitor Center in Washington D.C. only exceeded its projected building cost by hundreds of millions of dollars due to unforeseen difficulties did you?) Smaller government, with its trimmed down money flow helps insure lesser attraction of the cockroach class to the food supply.
Second, citizens shouldn’t be shocked when they hear of a crooked politician on the take. What do you expect from a pig but a grunt? The shock should come on the day that they meet an honest politician — should that day ever come. You can bet your bottom dollar that the very people that are prosecuting Blagojevich, as well as the politicians screaming about the injustice of Blagojevich’s actions are hip deep in their own graft. Diogenes lives, and continues to search in broad daylight, holding his lantern high, as he looks for an honest man.
Third, when you cause government to swell by increasing its access to the public till you guarantee that men of principle and honor will not pursue politics. Conversely, thus, what you will get running government, is, as I mentioned above, the cockroach class. If you want to find men and women without honor, without morals, and without shame all you have to do is find a government that is flush with money. Remember the whole Clinton imbroglio. Not only did we find out our President was a whore monger but we found out that the Speaker of the house (Newt Gingrich) had been whoring around. Likewise, we found out the Republican that was supposed to replace the Speaker of the House (Bob Livingston) was a whore monger. Honesty in government? — Please.
