Ari Shavit Quotes

1st Earl of Oxford. See {563056} for an American political leader’s similar view.

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.

This is a very important quotation. No one likes to make moral compromises, but Mann realized that there was a necessity in a complex society—especially a republic to make compromises. Politics cannot function without compromises of all kinds moral and otherwise as different people have different views of morality and rectitude. Mann observed that if compromises must be made, it is better for the politicians to make them than the educators, physicians, clerics, and other professional groups. Therefore politics takes the heat so that the other institutions of society do not have to. Thus politics has this crucial role among its others according to Mann.

Hamas, a terrorist group, however had taken over the Gaza Strip by force, ousting the Fatah Palestinian government. Hamas were then the de facto dictatorial rulers of almost 2 million Palestinians while the Fatah Government controls the West Bank with most of the Palestinians.

Clark, after becoming one of the richest men in America, wanted to go into National Politics, but most people hated him so he could never win elected office. At the time, Montana selected their Senators by a vote of the State Legislature. So Clark bribed enough members of the legislature to become the Senator. However, the bribery scheme became a public scandal and the Senate refused to seat him. So the legislature had another vote in the next legislative session and Clark won again, and that time no one had the evidence of the bribes. But then, more about Clark became known, and he just served the one term.