by Zach Bigalke

Created on: March 10, 2008

There is one crucial question which must be clarified before delving into the heart of this debate. For WHOM are we concerned about these two choices being worse: the politician at the heart of the scandal, or the American public? It is easy to say that sexual indiscretion on the part of a president or a senator is unsettling, certainly. It it true that these scandals can have deleterious effects on the career of the offending politician. Yet financial chicanery does more damage to the workings of our government, to the rights and privileges of ALL Americans. Scandal, we must remember, affects more than just the politician in question.

Bill Clinton was being fellated in the Oval Office. Larry Craig was soliciting anonymous homosexual favors in a Minneapolis airport bathroom stall. David Vitter was found on the list of the infamous "D.C. Madam". These are all juicy stories, for sure... but how do they really affect the everyday workings of our government? The sad truth is that these stories are mere fodder for our soundbite-driven media. Nothing more, nothing less...

But when politicians play fast and loose with the Treasury, the damage extends far beyond their personal reputations. The monies lost to cronyism, pork-barrel politics and pocket-lining, once gone, can no longer be used to help better the lives of the American people. When public works - our roadways and bridges and sewage systems and water supplies - are sold off to the highest bidder, we lose the oversight which keeps Americans safe in their homes and on the roads. When subcontractors are bought and sent into Iraq, we undermine the original mission to bring peace as these hired mercenaries lord over the populace completely outside the rule of law... and pay multiple times more for their service than for any Army personnel, draining our fiscal resources further.

Sexual peccadillos make for salacious headlines. But what is worse for the American public is when our elected officials usurp their duties and pillage our federal coffers. What a politician does in their private life has little if any effect on the private lives of the common citizen; but the mismanagement of our public resources has a profound negative effect on all our lives...

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