Little Black Books

The culture of corruption in Washington about which we're learning is outrageous for its sheer immorality. But I haven't seen any discussion of a major implication of all this. One of the reasons personal background checks are integral to so many jobs in government---particularly those in the intelligence community, presidential appointments, etc---is not to catch illegal behavior in and of itself. Personal vetting and background checks are important because they help weed out those who might be susceptible to blackmail by either a domestic or foreign entity.

Particularly during wartime, what are the implications for national security when so many of those in the governing party harbor nasty little personal secrets they'd do anything to keep hidden? This is not just about golf outings and Indian casinos. These are people casting votes to authorize military action against other countries and making decisions about how money gets spent to detect nuclear material at our ports. And we can be sure of this: while the rest of us may only be learning about the extent of this criminality now, every major foreign intelligence service---and that obviously includes the Russians, Chinese and Israelis---has had the personal goods on this bunch for a long time.

How has all this impacted national security? What arms have been twisted along the way?