Published: October 09, 2009 01:18 am      

TOM CHRISTY: Washington, Eh … We have a problem

We are witnessing firsthand what happens when politics becomes 100 percent, completely and unquestionably, corrupt. Most people who work in government positions are hardworking, honest and interested in serving their career with dignity or making suggestions for improving services. But politics — the game played by politicians desperate to hold onto power and paychecks — is a different story altogether.

Another thin layer of the onion has been exposed and we can add Erie County District Attorney Frank Sedita to the evolving story being written by Steve Pigeon, George Maziarz, Hiram Monserrate and Pedro Espada. What we have to begin to wonder is whether the story will eventually include Andrew Cuomo or other county district attorneys.

If you have missed the news of the past week or two, the district attorney’s office in Erie County is unraveling over the news that a possible airtight case of political corruption, researched by the third-highest-ranking, 20-plus year prosecutor in the office, is being ignored for political reasons. Sedita seems to be all alone on an island of his own making. Even the former DA Frank Clark won’t back up his story.

Why won’t anyone prosecute the corruption case? Because the central figure is Pigeon himself, and people in politics seem to believe he not only has access to unlimited political campaign funds, but also controls who gets and doesn’t get the Independent Party Line in elections. Those are perhaps the two most intimidating things when running for office — money and a ballot line that often makes the difference between winning and losing. Those are powerful carrots to dangle in front of any politician.

One option Sedita has is to recuse himself from this case and call for a special prosecutor. He’s refused to do that. If he passes the buck up the chain of command, there is the chance that the case gets prosecuted and the $150,000 chief counsel to the state Senate (Pigeon) gets convicted of political money-laundering. Political strategy requires you stop this investigation as soon as you can and keep control. Sedita, by refusing to let an independent special prosecutor review the file, is engaging in protectionist strategies, and he may not be devising this strategy in a vacuum.

What we must keep foremost in our minds, when considering government and politicians, is that if someone sees a wrong and doesn’t take action to fight it, that politician is now culpable for that wrong. It’s generally true in criminal law, and it’s certainly what we elect our politicians for: to watch for things on our behalf, not to see things and turn the other way.

Philosophers do not waver on this level of commitment. Dante, in his “Inferno,” says “the hottest places in Hell are reserved for those who, in a time of great moral crisis, maintain their neutrality.” Thomas Carlyle wrote “the courage we desire and prize is not the courage to die decently but to live manfully.”

If Sedita were to cave to public pressure and forward the case to a special prosecutor, it means that Cuomo, the state district attorney, might be involved. Cuomo is up for election next year whether he runs for re-election as DA or runs for governor. How’s he going to feel about taking on the Independence Party and Tom Golisano’s billions? If not Cuomo, a DA from an adjoining county could get the case, with the same set of ramifications Sedita faces.

I have too much respect for the Cuomo family to imagine he could be intimidated, but you see the flaws in the process of politics in New York state, and right here in our hometown. Do we need to go all the way to the federal government in Washington over a $10,000 political money laundering case? I’m thinking yes — and I’m getting the visual of the federal troops having to go into the south and stop southern governors from blocking college enrollment of African-American students in the ’60s. When the local political structure is so corrupt only federal troops can solve the problem, we are not living in a community we can be proud of.

If a career prosecutor — and one of the admittedly best prosecutors — can be fired for doing his job simply because the case involves a political figure, what does that say to all the other people who have a complaint about their government? We’ve seen how politicians in the Niagara County Legislature treat the three-minute crowd. Complete indifference to their research and concerns would be a generous description.

The story being written by Pigeon, Maziarz and others puts us squarely in the mix of statewide politics. We’ll see if our local brand of politics cures what ails our state or steps on the accelerator sending us towards complete national irrelevance.

Tom Christy is the founder of FAIR Government, a non-political and non-editorial educational foundation dealing with local government issues. The Web site is www.fair-government.org. He encourages communication and can be reached via e-mail at aim1986@mac.com