Lessons From Graham Platner |
How can Graham Platner, who might win the Democratic nomination for senator from Maine in Tuesday's primary election, ever be seriously considered for such a job, given the amount of personal baggage he carries?
The answer is we have so lowered our standards and think so little of our politicians that, as the saying used to go, anyone can grow up to be president or senator.
Platner has been accused of so many things that just one would have been enough to derail his candidacy in another era when character mattered. Today, power is all that appears to matter, and the way in which one achieves power seems less important than the objective.
Corrupt politicians are nothing new because everyone has a flawed human nature. Some control it, others don't. Just a few examples of those who didn't exert self-control.
Randall "Duke" Cunningham (R-CA) is among those who didn't. Cunningham was widely considered one of the most corrupt congressmen in American history. Given the levels of indictable and non-indictable corruption within the profession, that's saying something. Cunningham was sentenced to eight years and four........