Max Ehrenfreund Quotes
It is never exactly clear what makes something a quid or a quo.
Max Ehrenfreund, Journalist, Columnist & Blogger, “Varying views on the meaning of the word ‘corruption’”, The Washington Post, September 21, 2014
Sourced by: Eigen's Political and Historical Quotations
Samuel Langhorne Clemens, 1835-1910
This proverb is particularly relevant to the legislative process where coalitions of legislators trade off support for other issues to get support on a current issue. The problem is that someone who will support you only because you offer him something, might also abandon you if the other side offers him more.
Abramoff had bribed over 100 Congressional offices by a combination of campaign donations, paid golf junkets all over the world, free elegant meals at his own fancy Washington Restaurant, free tickets for the Congressmen, their staffs and their major constituents, to Concerts and sporting events including his own Skyboxes, and promises of future employment at very high salaries. Ironically, we was convicted of cheating some of his lobbying clients and did a jail term, but his “bribery” was technically usually legal. In addition to Abramoff, only one Congressman was charged and convicted of corruption, when many if not most had engaged in these corrupt practices. Congress makes the rules with loopholes so that what is bribery and corruption in any other setting is often not against the law if Congress is involved.
