Systemic Issue Quotes
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.
The President was a great reformer who faced the corruption problem squarely when he assumed office and made stunning reforms rapidly to where Georgia became a model of what could be done to reform a corrupt culture.
He was one of the few people on the left to perceive and criticize the Communist Regime in Russia. This was arguably when the Soviet Union was at its zenith.
