Hardly anyone, with the nerve to say so on television, believes that the infusion of money in today’s political scene hasn’t become a major problem.
It became glaringly obvious in 2010 when the Supreme Court gave us Citizens United.
The decision has made it so much easier for Political Action Committees (PACs) and Super PACs to donate to the campaigns of their favorite politicians as part of a decision that was meant to stand as a protection of the right of the wealthy to exercise their right of free speech. Money does, after all- talk.
But one governor and one major pharmaceutical manufacturing aspirant have been pushing the boundary between what is an acceptable campaign donation and bribery.
As it goes, one Bob McDonnell, the one-time Republican governor of Virginia was being heavily courted by the head of Star Scientific- Jonnie Williams. Williams was looking for a big boost to take his experimental pharmaceutical product to the federal trial phase, and he wanted McDonnell to vouch for him.
Before McDonnell could find his official back scratcher, he and his wife were being given scores of lavish gifts, shopping sprees in Manhattan, and invitations to munificent dinner events.
Williams’ drug got a lot farther in the approval process that it probably should have. This is evidenced by the fact that FDA officials are quoted as having said they were suspicious of Williams’ product, Anatabloc.
It doesn’t speak well to the judgment of McDonnell, who- if he’d had the insight to realize that Williams was trying to cheat the FDA’s approval process for a drug to graduate from mere nutraceutical to the much more profitable pharmaceutical- would probably have had the good sense to steer clear of this crooked shooter.
But it seems that the exorbitantly expensive dress McDonnell’s wife found herself in, the Rolex watches, cars, the hundreds of thousands in contributions and opulent parties were simply too good to turn down.
But what finally got McDonnell into hot water was when he held a promotional event at the gubernatorial mansion for the benefit of Anatabloc. The former governor has been defending himself in court ever since.
He was saddled with a two-year sentence in federal prison- a punishment which has been suspended after a series of reconsiderations by members of the Supreme Court.
Apparently, the Justices, in their wisdom, are concerned that slapping McDonnell too roughly would endanger the legal right of PACs to exercise their rich person’s version of free speech.
Does the promotional event really constitute a Quid Pro Quo violation of the public trust, they ask. A promotional event is not, after all, a policy or an executive action.
It is, however, graceless and suspicious, but still only a type of statement- promoting Anatabloc. The Justices do not believe that they were wrong to convict him, but they have backed off in the severity of their punishment and are continuing to talk about how they will handle future trials of a similar nature.
What’s got pundits and concerned citizens up in arms about the flaccidity of SCOTUS in their treatment of a clear case of political corruption is the combination of their decisions and the tone of their public statements.
The gist of it seems to come down to essentially offering advice to politicians across the country on how to take bribes and get away with it. It’s been done under the guise of not wanting to step on the toes of wealthy donors who only want to use their right to free speech (the big money version).
It’s a message you might expect to hear come from a mafia Don in a secret meeting with a corrupt senator in some Martin Scorsese gangster film and it goes a little something like this: “If your donor gives you a Rolex watch and you immediately schedule a closed doors meeting with them, that’s corruption, Bobbie. But, if you take the meeting, and the Rolex turns up in the brief that your advisors push across the table at you- that’s a gift, and nobody has to be none the wiser.”
If you’d heard it said that way on a secret tape recording, people would be looking to have the Justices impeached. But since they put it across in standard CNN boilerplate, hardly anyone bats an eye.
But it’s perfectly understandable after all, no justice gets dispensed in this country without a few loaded briefing folders shoved across oaken tables- and far be it from the Supreme Court to tamper with such a time-honored tradition.
Regards,
Ethan Warrick
Editor
Wealth Authority
