Inside the Corrupt Bastards Club

The Washington Post has a fascinating overview of the Alaska corruption scandal and what surveillance videos revealed about the inside workings of the so-called Corrupt Bastards Club (that's what the crooks called it) where booze, Viagra, and $100 bills could buy you an Alaskan lawmaker. Some Alaskans have been shocked not so much at the corruption but at the penny ante nature of it. It seems to have hurt local pride to discover that politicians would sellout so cheap, often for no more than a handful of C-notes. One reaction: "The fact of the matter is, we all want to bribe a politician," said Mr. Whitekeys, an Anchorage entertainer whose long-running political cabaret is called the Whale Fat Follies. "We all thought it'd take a Mercedes or a Porsche. Nobody knew you could buy a politician for the cost of a used riding lawn mower." The scandal brings back memories the 1980s Gamscam sting in Olympia which brought down House Speaker John Bagnariol and Senate Majority leader Gordon Walgren, both powerful Democrats, on charges of conspiring to expand gambling in Washington for a piece of the action. It was part of an elaborate FBI operation. Since then, gambling has become ubiquitous in the state, but Gamscam came to symbolize a corrupt and cheesier era in Washington politics. When I was an intern in Olympia in 1975, I was introduced to Bagnariol. My impression was not only would I not buy a used car from the guy, but I wouldn't even buy, well, a used riding lawn mower from him. He seemed oilier even than Nixon. When I later heard "Baggie" was caught up in Gamscam, my first thought was, "It figures." I suppose it should be no more shocking that some pols would throw their careers away for a quick peek at a thong or a fast hook up in a men's room that the price of selling one's soul is often pocket change. But it remains one of scandal's most fascinating and puzzling elements: How little the corruptees get out of their devil's bargains.