God, don’t you wish some liberal Democrat would check in with a vice that isn’t commonplace, trite and predictable?
Money and women. Women and money. People who have the opportunity to influence history, to boost the welfare of millions, will put it all on the line for a babe or a buck.
In Charlie Rangel’s case, it’s the buck. Rangel, who helped improve the economy of Harlem, who opposed the Iraq War and other Bush administration policies, now has his foot stuck in a pile of alleged financial infractions, from having four rent-controlled apartments in New York (one is a campaign office) to failing to report income to helping an oil drilling company to a tax loophole in return for a $1 million gift to an institution named for him at City College of New York.
Why, Charlie, why? Why does a man who’s been a public servant since 1967, who comes from Harlem and knows how people who barely scrape by need congressmen like Charlie Rangel, not steer clear of such an obvious trap?
Opportunity is so rare in this life. At the moment a hefty percentage of a whole generation is threatened with the loss of it. The opportunity to improve life for millions—for the world, even, when you’re a U.S. congressman—would seem to be worth foregoing the extra nickel for when your salary and benefits already have you covered up to and through your state funeral. But no: if the charges are true, Charlie had to go for the candy.
Then there’s Bill Clinton, who nearly derailed his presidency for a thong dangled in his face. And there’s Eliot Spitzer, who as attorney general and governor of New York had done immeasurable good investigating corporate crime, securities fraud and environmental violations—until he was caught dallying with a high-priced prostitute, a lapse he should have known would be fodder for his enemies in high places.
And why did Sen. John Kerry, who has so eloquently inveighed against tax loopholes, let himself appear to be ducking payment of $500,000 in Massachusetts state taxes on his yacht?
Progressive programs need a lot of things: creative concepts, congressional majorities, funding, oversight, and implementation that doesn’t distort them (as do the impulses of governors such as Massachusetts’ Deval Patrick to give taxpayer money to big-time capitalists like Bob Kraft). But they also need statesmen, people who can spend years in government without regressing to a state of goggle-eyed salivation about the money and the sex, both of which—especially the sex—are so much more common than genuine opportunity.
