As a conquering Roman general returned to Rome and paraded in triumph before the masses, a slave stood beside him and spoke into his ear, “All glory is fleeting,” according to Gen. George S. Patton.
Rep. Aaron Schock, R-Illinois, joins a growing list of gifted politicians whose poor judgment, greed, lust or outright criminality brought them scandal, ruin, resignation and prosecution. The most notorious — former Virginia Gov. Bob McDonnell, former South Carolina governor and current U.S. Rep. Mark Sanford, former New York U.S. Rep. Anthony Weiner, former N.Y. Gov. Eliot Spitzer, former Oregon Gov. John Kitzhaber and now Schock — are ultra-talented, celebrity-handsome and intelligent.
Apparently all were decent men before entering public service. They had nothing but vistas of opportunity before them. McDonnell had the intangibles of a first-rate presidential candidate. An editor of the Harvard Law Review and brilliant lawyer with a crime-fighting reputation, Spitzer possessed formidable gifts that might have taken him far. Kitzhaber graduated from Dartmouth, became a physician and was elected to four terms as Oregon’s governor. Schock was a phenom who started his own business in fifth grade and became a member of the Illinois House of Representatives at 23.
I write this column with mixed feelings because I am not worthy to judge any person, and I don’t know the specifics of any particular case. The majority of men and women who serve in public office are good people, whose service comes as a personal sacrifice rather than a benefit.
Thus, I offer no conclusion as to the guilt or innocence of any particular person. However, speaking in general terms, Schock’s scandal reminds us of too many others, including the troubles of former Utah Attorneys General Mark Shurtleff and John Swallow.
Politicians who succumb to scandal do so by failing to control their egos and their appetites. This can lead to the entitlement mentality, the dangers of hanging out with rich guys, affairs and the invisibility deception.
Entitlement mentality
Full-time public officials win elections, which tend to reinforce their world view and their self-view. Their ideas and even their personalities, as it were, have been effectively endorsed by tens of thousands, even millions, of voters. Elective office only emphasizes the rightness of their views. It’s not that far from being right to being bright, from bright to specially enlightened, and then to just plain special.
Once in office, they can be shielded from unplanned, unpleasant encounters with those of dissenting views. Public officials can choose to live in cocoons, echo chambers of approval and self-reinforcement where staff and lobbyists listen to them, cater to them, flatter them, even buffer them from outside pressures. Lobbyists will raise money for their re-election. They can help get their measures enacted into law. They can make them look good to the folks at home. The media wants to interview them, quote them and take pictures of them. They want their opinion. Pretty intoxicating for a guy from Smallville.
Dangers of hanging out with rich guys
Public servants tend to mix with rich, influential people who want their time and attention and will go far to curry favor. They are their “friends.” Popular officials are feted at rich banquets and private receptions and invited to give expense-paid speeches at luxurious resorts. A popular governor or member of Congress might see that these fat cats aren’t as smart or powerful as he is, yet they’re rich and he isn’t.
Affairs
The recent affairs of Gen. David Petraeus and Gov. Sanford — and even harking back to Bill Clinton and John Edwards — remind us that it takes commitment and integrity for prominent people to avoid losing their way. Long separation from loved ones because of campaigning or serving in office brings temptations that are only magnified by the adulation inherent in high office.
The invisibility deception
Like a child who thinks she’s invisible when she but closes her eyes, politicians somehow develop a strange mental condition that deludes them to believe their adultery or bribery or illegal expenditures are invisible.
This recital of peccadillos leaves me saddened — for those who personally suffer by them and because these scandals do great harm to the public’s image of our public servants and our government. I am, however, all the more grateful for the morality and integrity of government officials who resist the temptations that accompany high office.
May they remember that “all glory is fleeting.”
Greg Bell is the former lieutenant governor of Utah and the current president and CEO of the Utah Hospital Association.