There is a telling line from a movie entitled: The Last Samurai that I have always taken to heart. The protagonist asks the prince who captured him: “What do you want from me?” The prince answers: “What do you want from yourself?”
As a national ethics keynote speaker, ethics consultant and ethics book author, those two questions resonate deeply whenever I hear of a new political scandal. As with most of us, I pay my taxes, do my civic duty, am respectful to authority and try to lead life as a good citizen. I am not unusual in that regard. However, nearly every day, one of our elected officials, local, regional, state or national is caught in one type of scam or another. Why would I not expect the same from someone we have elected as we do of ourselves?
The Senator and the businessman
Wael Hana is an Egyptian business executive who has recently been incarcerated after bribing Sen. Bob Menendez. He has pled not guilty to bribery. He is out on bail, which was set at a whopping $5 million plus other conditions as he definitely presents a flight risk.
According to Danielle Wallace at Fox News (September 27, 2023), Hana was the go-to guy in arranging meetings, presenting gifts and inviting Menendez to lavish dinners with Egyptian military officials.
Hana lived in New Jersey as a permanent resident and he was (over several years) able to network his way into Menendez’s office. The meetings and bribery that took place over time (2018 to 2022) was hardly haphazard. Menendez chaired the powerful Senate Foreign Relations Committee. Menendez was ultimately responsible for the approval of grants.
“[I]ncluding grants of over $1 billion per year and in the form of direct government-to-government sales of military equipment, according to the indictment.”
In addition to military aid and grants, Menedez allegedly influenced officials at the Department of Agriculture “to seek to protect a business monopoly granted to Hana by Egypt for supplying halal meat.”
This has hardly been Menendez’ first brush with accusations of fraud as he has been investigated for protecting mobsters and taking bribes.
A cache of cash
The Fox News article detailed the findings of a June 2022 FBI search of the Menendez home in relation to the Egyptian bribery arrangement.:
“In cash, gold, the luxury [Mercedes-Benz] convertible and home furnishings. Prosecutors say $480,000 in cash, much of it stuffed into envelopes and hidden in clothing, closets, and a safe, was discovered in the home, as well as over $70,000 in cash in Nadine’s [Menendez’ wife] safe deposit box.” Indeed, the envelopes with Menendez’ name were found throughout the home as one might discover Easter eggs on the front lawn!
The fingerprints on the envelopes were both mob related money and money from the Egyptian officials.
However, these “juicy” details of gold bars, stacks of cash and luxury items belie a much larger problem. Though Menendez is a Democrat is of no importance to me as are stories of fraud connected to Republicans and Independents. These are the men and women whom we elect to be above reproach and to be the best of us. They often aren’t.
At the present time a U.S. senator receives a base salary of $174,000 each year plus generous allowances to include free healthcare and free travel and numerous other privileges. There is, of course, nothing that stands in the way of some politicians offering jobs and consulting positions to friends and family members to assume staff positions. While the salary may appear modest, in reality, it opens the floodgates for lobbyists who are free to “donate” to officials in their own, covered-up, yet official ways through various funds and causes.
The patterns of deceit are often emulated by lower-ranking officials in local, regional and state ranks. It is by no accident that influence peddling turns a person of modest means into very wealthy individuals.
Greater and lesser
In national offices, for the House of Representatives and Senate, the prize is to seek the more powerful committees where politicians such as Menendez are turned into multi-millionaires. Where in all of this is ethics? It is a victim to ambition and greed; it is often crushed under the pressure of arrogance and the other trappings of self-importance. Though there is certainly an ethics committee, as a national ethics keynote speaker, ethics consultant and ethics book author, I believe ethics is scoffed at by the system.
The ethical question of “What do you want from me?” needs to be re-framed and re-phrased. It is long past-due for politicians to be answerable to the electorate. Whether mandatory ethical training plus term limits plus the loss of benefits such as free health care are necessary, should be made into national issues of referenda rather than taken for granted.
