Tuesday, September 29, 2009

Post-Dispatch editorial- The difference between bribery and campaign donations

A. St. Louis Post-Dispatch editorial examines the difference between campaign contributions and bribery...and really doesn't find any difference:

On Thursday, state Rep. T.D. El-Amin, D-St. Louis, pleaded guilty to a federal charge of soliciting and accepting $2,100 in bribes.

Bad. Very bad. As state Rep. Joe Smith, R-St. Charles, told the Post-Dispatch’s Jake Wagman, it causes people to ask, “What are they doing in Jefferson City?”

Part of the answer is this: Soliciting money.

On Wednesday, as El-Amin awaited his day in court and prepared to resign from office, Gov. Jay Nixon’s campaign committee received a $25,000 contribution from Blue Cross/Blue Shield of Kansas City.

Since July, Republican Tom Schweich’s campaign for state auditor has received seven contributions of $10,000 or more. In August, state Rep. Steven Tilley, R-Perryville, who probably will be the next Missouri House speaker, received five matching $10,000 donations from a group of nursing homes.

2 comments:

  1. Anonymous4:15 PM

    Interesting..... I made this comparison about a month ago ( Michael Goodrich took money, which was called bribes, from certain people in exchange for some favors and politicians accept "gifts" from people for favors and votes). Is this really a matter of semantics or does the public really view this as different?

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  2. Pay to Play.

    reminds me of the old joke,

    punch line is: We've already determined that, now we are just haggling over the price.

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