Do These People Have No Shame?

Do These People Have No Shame?

From July 1, 2009 Washington Post/MSNBC:

WASHINGTON - Sen. Daniel K. Inouye's staff contacted federal regulators last fall to ask about the bailout application of an ailing Hawaii bank that he had helped to establish and where he has invested the bulk of his personal wealth.

The bank, Central Pacific Financial, was an unlikely candidate for a program designed by the Treasury Department to bolster healthy banks. The firm's losses were depleting its capital reserves. Its primary regulator, the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp., already had decided that it didn't meet the criteria for receiving a favorable recommendation and had forwarded the application to a council that reviewed marginal cases, according to agency documents.

Two weeks after the inquiry from Inouye's office, Central Pacific announced that the Treasury would inject $135 million.

As I pointed out with respect to a Republican member of Congress a couple of years ago, you can somewhat understand why someone who is scraping by to pay his bills might be tempted to abuse his political position. But when you are already wealthy enough that you don't need to work--and in the case of Senator Inouye, you are so old that you can't possibly spend the money that you already have before you die--why takes actions that at least look corrupt, and probably are?

And there are so many of these of late: Sen. Conyers' wife, Monica Conyers, who resigned from the Detroit City Council after her conviction, and whose husband used his position to assist in the corruption. And the list of these crooks (overwhelmingly Democrats) is so long and disappointing. You know, if Americans cared about corruption by public officials, the Democrats would have something to worry about at the next election. But pretty clearly, most Americans don't let this bug them much.