Illinois Gov. Rod Blagojevich is the latest to prove Lord Acton's truism that "power tends to corrupt." Wiretapped swearing like a mob boss while plotting to shake down the incoming 44th U.S. president for a White House job in exchange for naming Barack Obama's senate successor, Blagojevich also proves the widespread belief that power also breeds stupidity.
There's an incurable I-Can-Do-No-Wrong virus that afflicts some men and women in power jobs.
Blagojevich forgot that three of his predecessors (Governors Kerner, Walker and Ryan) were sent to the big house for crimes.
Several congressmen from this generation are in federal prison for taking bribes. Another, Democrat Rep. William Jefferson of Louisiana, famed for hiding $90,000 cash in a freezer, faces the same fate. Reckless sex brought down New York Gov. Eliot Spitzer, forever tainted former President Bill Clinton and ended the career of presidential candidate Sen. John Edwards.
Arrogance isn't just political. CEO John Thain of the belly-up Wall Street giant Merrill Lynch still believes he deserves a $10 million bonus for managing the company. Sure.
Now we have the serialized comedy of Idaho's lame-duck U.S. Sen. Larry Craig considering a second court appeal to overthrow his guilty plea of propositioning a police officer in an airport bathroom stall.
Craig seems too dense to realize that no court appeal, successful or not, can ever erase from comedy monologues or political archives and the public memory that he pleaded guilty and now says he isn't, and promised to resign early and didn't.
It's demonstrably awful for the country when stupidity and arrogance mix.
