Corruption takes two
One the one hand we have my old high school chum Christopher Christie taking down the rat bastards who tried to get rich off the backs of investors and employees at Cendant with former Chairman Walter Forbes getting a 12 year jail term, former Vice Chairman E. Kirk Sheldon getting ten years and each ordered to pay restitution of $3.275 billion. They can spend their days in the pen comparing notes with the Rigas men, Jeffrey Skilling and Dennis Kozlowski, remembering the days of $15,000 shower curtains and private jets.
On the other we have the sleazy Bush team trying to quietly do what they can for supporters and allies before the Democrats run them out of DC. In this instance that means firing US Attorneys like Carol Lam in San Diego before they can bring folks like Republican congressman Jerry Lewis (who is still very popular in France, right?) to trial for giving fat government contracts to businesspeople willing to give fat lobbying and consulting contracts in return. At least Lam convicted ex-Representative Randy Duke for taking a million dollar plus home in exchange for getting a few earmarks into legislation.
I really like this quote the Times has about Lam’s dismissal from the F.B.I. chief in San Diego: “What do you expect her to do? Let corruption exist?â€Â
Update: Richard Koman reports in Silicon Valley Watcher that Kevin Ryan, the US Attorney leading the stock options backdating investigation, is another target of the Bush purge and that “[t]he Department of Justice has asked for resignations of all but one US Attorney in California and Democrats see the moves as at attempt to replace Attorneys who don’t meet the Bush Administration’s conservative litmus test.” Sad, really farking sad.
