Parliamentary service is a road to comfort, writes Jay Kuten. Photo / File
Parliamentary service is a road to comfort, writes Jay Kuten. Photo / File
"Oh! What a tangled web we weave, when first we practice to deceive."
It's by Sir Walter Scott, from a play Marmion, about a dark romantic triangle. (Yes, I had to look it up).
When Richard Nixon resigned as President in the face of certain conviction in the Senate,I was having dinner with a long-time Republican political operative.
When I asked how he saw the startling events of Nixon's downfall, my dinner companion offered, "live by the sword, you die by the sword."
The reference was to Nixon's well-deserved reputation for dirty tricks and gutter politics, from red-baiting to the dog-whistles of "law and order," and the "Southern Strategy" with its appeal to the racism of many white voters in the era of civil rights progress.
Watergate was a hoisting by his own petard, an attempted break-in to get opponents' secrets that eventually exposed Nixon's own, taped by him.
Donald Trump's downfall, if it comes to pass, could be called Ukraine-gate but the chickens coming home to roost are really carrying the rotten eggs of conspiracy theories which have been his stock in trade long before he promoted the racist canard that Obama wasn't a real American.
Having sought and failed to delegitimise Obama's presidency, Trump has been obsessed with his own standing as he lost the popular vote and the inauguration crowd count.
The findings of the US intelligence agencies and those of the Mueller investigation made the case that Russia had interfered in the US election of 2016.
That added to the questions surrounding Trump's own electoral legitimacy.
Into and under Trump's thin skin came former NYC mayor, Rudy Guiliani, who has reportedly been stirring up a cauldron of suspicion and plot, centred on deflecting from Russia's hacking into the Democrats' email serverto the completely far-fetched belief that Ukraine, not Russia had done the interfering in the US election.
Never ones to let facts get in the way of a good conspiracy theory, Trump, with Guiliani's help, apparently decided to withhold congressionally mandated military aide to Ukraine to pressure that Government to investigate Hunter Biden for corruption in an effort to damage the candidacy of former Vice-President Joe Biden.
That's how we got to where we are now - an impeachment process - as the use of presidential power for personal political gain is what the US Constitution defines as a "high crime" and thus an impeachable offence.
Jay Kuten
In defence, Trump has claimed he was simply encouraging Ukraine to clean up its act regarding corruption.
Although that latter is a thin reed upon which to rest a defence against impeachable offences, Trump may be inadvertently on to something.
Just as Trump's chief of staff, Mick Mulvaney claims that political influence in foreign policy is a normal state of affairs, the casual acceptance of corruption should not be something "everyone should just get over".
While Hunter Biden's accepting a job with the Ukrainian energy company was not illegal, nor was his pay of $50,000 monthly, the fact of the children or family of senior elected officials enriching themselves ought to be more than a matter of bad judgment, and a mere appearance of impropriety.
Trump's children also have prospered. Ivanka Trump was granted several trademarks worth millions, by China, while her father was negotiating trade deals with that nation.
For too long the not so subtle bribery by lobbyists of elected officials has gone on, ultimately weakening the democracy, encouraging cynicism and discouraging voters from participating in a game rigged to profit those in power.
Here, in New Zealand, public service at the highest level has become a road to comfort, if not riches.
When those who exit parliamentary service go on to sit on boards, or receive a life-time of benefits and perks for their past work - work not as stressful as that of a front-line soldier or indeed of an average grade school teacher - we need to ask some serious questions as to the subtle corruption we've seemingly come to accept.
