What do the former speaker of the house Sal DiMasi and Brookline real estate developer Arthur Winn have in common, other than capping their careers with federal convictions? They both managed to achieve their notoriety by doing illegally what the political system offers abundant opportunities to achieve legally.
That conclusion is obvious when you consider the two cases. As CommonWealth Magazine reported, Winn got into trouble when federal investigators pursuing Senator Dianne Wilkerson found that some vendors contracting with Winn had attended a fund-raiser the developer had for the senator and were reimbursed by Winn for their contributions through padded work invoices. CommonWealth (full disclosure: I contribute a monthly column to the online magazine) explained that in consideration of the fund-raising help and $10,000 Winn gave her to help with her personal debts Wilkerson pushed a $10 million state grant (later killed by the Patrick administration). While explaining Winn’s willingness to plead to two misdemeanor counts relating to contributions to congressmen Michael Capuano and Stephen Lynch, attorney Robert Popeo told CommonWealth “The whole area of political contributions is rife with hypocrisy . . . It’s possible to legally make campaign contributions much larger than the contributions Winn is pleading guilty to. . . . You shouldn’t prosecute people for doing something they could do legally.”
Hear hear for attorney Popeo. This is exactly the point made in Lawrence Lessig’s
new book, Republic, Lost: How Money Corrupts Congress — and a Plan to Stop It. Our political system is so awash in legal means to bestow large sums into the political accounts of public officials that only a true nincompoop (and Popeo was relying on the nincompoop defense) would be so foolhardy as to pursue illegal means.
So we arrive back at former Speaker DiMasi. This is really a different case because the
beneficiaries of Winn’s largesse, Democratic and Republican, were unmindful of
his illegality and bear no responsibility in the case (except for perhaps Wilkerson). But the similarity is, as a number of folks have commented, DiMasi got $65,000 in his bribery scheme and could easily have made that money legally by resigning his position and returning as a lobbyist after following the one year ban on lobbying required by state law. A number of former legislative leaders have done exactly that, including those with their own legal and ethical problems.
Lessig saw the same system in Washington that exists on Beacon Hill, brought home to him by Representative Jim Cooper who explained that “Capitol Hill is a farm system
for K Street.” In other words, senators and representatives have their eyes set on lucrative lobbying careers even as they represent us in Congress.
As Michael Kinsley has observed, in politics the scandal is not what is illegal, but what is legal. To get convicted in this system you’d have to be, well – a nincompoop.
Well, DiMasi would have had to wait 1 year – which he could have spent lobbying local governments – before lobbying the state.
A valid point John and thanks for reminding me of it.
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