Grounded by hubris, greed Story on Yahoo/USA Today
...But long before DeLay, hubris has been a bird-flu-like epidemic toppling congressional powerhouses sucked into ethics scandals. The House Hall of Shame is turning into a crowded docket.
You could start with Jim Wright, D-Texas, the first House speaker to lose that job over ethics charges. When Wright resigned in 1989, in part for taking $145,000 in illegal gifts from a Texas developer, his downfall was engineered in a hubristic coup by then-Rep. Newt Gingrich, R-Ga. Nearly eight years later, Speaker Gingrich was fined $300,000 for ethical misdeeds, and was essentially chased out because his image as hotshot Republican visionary turned sour...
I find it interesting that this word, "hubris," was pounding through my brain the other day. It was in relation to the "other" Washington scandal involving some White House insider(s) and CIA Agent Valerie Plame. I was wondering when does one get so drunk with power and pride that one thinks you can out a CIA agent and get away with it?
Perhaps, we need to ask Misters DeLay, Gingrich, Wright and Rostenkowski.
1 comment:
Unfortunately, most of the citizenry is apathetic or uninterested. So, it is up to people like ourselves - hopefully people with more power - to try to shine the light in dark places.
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