You can wish it were so, you can close your eyes and click the ruby slippers together, but there is no such thing as a 'clean' politician. It isn't possible. The unicorn has more credibility as a creature than a 'clean' politician.

I am not saying Obama is sleazy because he has strong and undeniable ties to Rezko and his money. Even the scrupulously honest Harry Truman had his Tom Pendergast. What I am saying is that even the best-intentioned politicians HAVE to grease the skids somehow, just to have a shot. It's a money-and-favor system, and it's not for the weak, or naive idealists. It has been this way since the Greek city-state, through the Roman Republic, and it was ever thus. It's the natural order. And it imperfect as it can be, it works more often than not.

The Great American Political Novel of All Time says it best: "Man is conceived in sin and born in corruption and he passeth from the stink of the didie to the stench of the shroud. There is always something."

There is always something.