"I am not a crook!" ---Richard Nixon; "I am not a crook, I am an idiot!"----Ulysses Currie

Blatantly incompetent elected officials stand as indictments of the ethics of more than the officials themselves. The fact that they are in high office reflects poorly on the political parties that support them, the voters who elect them, and the democratic system itself. It is difficult to imagine a more vivid example of this than: Maryland State Senator Ulysses Currie (D), currently standing trial on federal corruption charges.

Currie received over $245,000 during a five year period, “under the table” of course, to push through legislation and other measures to benefit a local grocery chain. To earn his money, Currie intervened with state officials to obtain funding to redevelop a mall, secure liquor licenses, and help the chain in other ways. This is called paid lobbying, except when the individual doing the lobbying is a legislator at the time. Then it is called “taking a bribe.” Sen. Currie conveniently left his receipt of the money off of his state ethics disclosure forms, as required by law.

Amazingly, all of this is conceded by his lawyers, who nonetheless maintain that Currie is innocent. How can they do that? Their argument, which he must be presumed to approve, is that he is a moron. The defense has led to the stand a parade of prominent Democrats including U.S. House of Representatives Minority Whip Steny Hoyer, Maryland Lt. Governor Anthony Brown and others, who have collectively testified that Currie is frighteningly disorganized, often confused,  befuddled by details, can’t communicate very well, often doesn’t comprehend what he reads and hears and has only a rudimentary understanding of the legislative process. Remember now, these are his character witnesses.

The fact that Maryland’s Democratic Party would try to excuse obvious graft and corruption by supporting a plea of stupidity of one of their own is more offensive and frightening than anything Currie did. Maryland is basically a one-party state, and the one party has obviously forgotten what it is there for. Morons cannot serve the needs of Marylanders: they should not be nominated for office, or given party funds to campaign. They have their political uses, of course, if the objective of the political system isn’t to serve the public, but rather to hold power and give out favors to friends and supporters: morons are easy to exploit. The existence of a disgrace like Sen. Currie in the legislature calls for more than his removal. It demands an uprising by voters to demand competent and honest representation, and political parties devoted to offering it.