Compare the following :
1 A governor tries to sell his power over a senatorial appointment to a union that wants a friend in the Senate.
2 A governor gives favorable treatment to the same union, which contributed to his campaign.
3 Congress people threaten to tax private equity firms in order to encourage them to make political contributions. See here, here and here.
My point is not that all this activity is equally illegal. Rather, it is that Blago is not as much an aberration as some would like us to believe.
Let's keep that in mind before we hand over more regulatory power to politicians because we think we can trust them more than the market participants who would be regulated.
Update: WaPo:
Fundraising and campaign-donation cases can present challenges, since the expectation of a favor is not enough to meet high legal burdens.
"Perhaps the distinction rests on the fact that Governor Blagojevich was so foolish as to explicitly demand contributions in return for official actions, whereas most politicians are smart enough to leave such matters unstated," said Melanie Sloan, executive director of Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington.
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