We don't expect our politicians to be honest
By R.B. Parrish in American Thinker
When we read about the accumulated
wealth of our leaders most of us simply shrug. Accumulated wealth after a
lifetime spent in public service is now taken as a given. I think of the
Hasterts, the Pelosis ($34 million or so) ); Ted Stevens,
and of course we can't forget to mention the Clintons. Prosecution of our
ruling class for violations of ordinary laws (which the rest of us must live
by) is almost non-existent. (And where is the senator who is not a
millionaire?) We tend to accept that there are two classes in America: our
nobility, who are not to be judged by ordinary standards; and then everyone
else. We have become, in that regard, divided like Bourbon France.
But once in awhile I remember a
different America, and a different set of rules.
Sam Rayburn was in Congress for
almost 49 years, 17 of them as Speaker -- Speaker during the years of FDR,
Truman, and Eisenhower. Speaker during World War II -- the second-most powerful
man in the country. Nowadays people hear that and think: World War II --
imagine the number of government contracts that were let! What incredible
opportunities there must have been for a little acceptable graft! No one would
be surprised -- or much upset -- if Rayburn had finished out his life with a
nice bundle stashed away somewhere.
Lyndon Johnson, a rough contemporary,
is estimated to have had as much as $100 million at the time of his death.
It comes as a major shock, then, to
learn that Speaker Rayburn had only $26,000 in cash in various accounts when he
died. In his civilian life he was a Texas rancher. His various acerages put
together were valued at around $300,000. He also owned some old pickup trucks (one valued at $100)
and other antiquated (not new) farm equipment.
Rayburn was a man at whose house
Diogenes might have put down his lantern and settled in to stay. His honesty
was a byword. When he went on congressional junkets, he paid his own travel expenses.
He refused payment for work from companies when they had an issue before
the legislature.
...I said to him that I was a member
of the Legislature . . . and that my experience had taught me that men who
represent the people should be as far removed as possible from concerns whose
interests he was liable to be called on to legislate concerning, and that on
that ground I would not accept a dollar of the railroad's money, though I was
legally entitled to it. I never did take a dollar of it. I have been guided by
the principle in all my dealings.
( H.G. Dulaney & Edward
Hake Phillips, Speak, Mr. Speaker 20 (1978)
When a businessman privately
delivered a valuable horse to his property, he returned the horse.
( Anthony Champagne, Congressman Sam Rayburn31 (1984))
We
would search hard to find that kind of concept of public service today.
And even worse, we no longer expect
to find it. We are content if our heroes and standard bearers engage in only a
moderate amount of corruption -- if they pile up only a few trifling millions.
That goes with the territory, with being part of the ruling elite.
We accept that's the best we can
hope for.
If a man puts in the years of
service that Sam Rayburn did, and emerges with less than half a million, we
think him a fool, not a hero.
And that's a pity.
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