After Citizens United, Supreme Court looks ready to legalize political bribery...

[JDPriestly]

11. Quotes I like from that article:

As modern corruption law developed, the axiom that an official shouldn’t accept gifts for public duties, broadly understood, was a basic feature of American law. The Supreme Court has held that under the Hobbs Act, “the Government need only show that a public official has obtained a payment to which he was not entitled, knowing that the payment was made in return for official acts.”

Otherwise, only the most unsophisticated criminal would ever get caught. A clumsy influence seeker might write an email offering “five diamonds for five votes in Congress,” but the powerful corrupting forces in our society would avoid explicit deals and give lavish gifts tied to meetings and speeches, winking and nodding all the while.

http://www.nytimes.com/2016/04/29/opinion/theres-no-such-thing-as-a-free-rolex.html?emc=edit_th_20160429&nl=todaysheadlines&nlid=70251688

Meanwhile, Don Siegelman is still in prison.