Posted: Thursday, July 31, 2008 12:00 am
Why is it that some public officials keep accepting gifts? Don't they know, first of all, that it's wrong and, second, that even if it wasn't, it looks exceedingly bad, especially when gifts become the subject of an official investigation?
Ted Stevens, the longest-serving Republican in the U.S. Senate, has been charged by a federal grand jury with failing to report more than $250,000 in gifts from 1999 through 2007 from Veco Corp., an oil-services company that has agreed to be purchased by CH2M Hill.
According to the indictment, the gifts included furniture, home renovations including a kitchen range, and a 1999 Land Rover that Stevens got in exchange for a 35-year-old Mustang.
Stevens has insisted that he's innocent and didn't conceal any gifts. In our system, the presumption is that someone is innocent unless proved otherwise in a court of law. Still, a grand jury was persuaded that Stevens indeed received gifts and that he didn't report them as required.
At age 84, Stevens is no novice to politics. He must know that you don't take presents from anyone, especially expensive presents from people who may be looking for favors.
Even if you don't bestow any favors - and in the Stevens case none have been alleged - it looks very bad to accept expensive gifts.
It is certainly possible that influential and rich people know each other as friends, and that they give each other things out of pure friendship. But even then, gifts to senators must be reported. And if questions then arise, the senators can try to persuade the public that it was a case of friendship, not corruption.
Wise politicians, though, just don't accept gifts of substantial value at all. That way they have nothing to declare and nothing to explain. (hh)