"In a White House without integrity, everything becomes tainted. Dishonor is like a cancer that spreads inexorably as it feeds upon ambition, protects itself with lies & doubles down with cover-ups. Indifference to ethics has spread through the cabinet & agencies, resulting in endless scandals. And the epidemic has rippled through much of the G.O.P. (with some heroic exceptions), turning lawmakers into enablers and hypocrites. Every administration suffers embarrassments --Politicians, liberals & conservatives alike, are often unprincipled. But when there is a basic lack of integrity at the top, these do not easily self-correct; rather, they build upon themselves because of an impulse to cover up and layer new deceptions on top of old deceit. That’s alarming because of the risks that even worse might lie ahead. When self-absorbed people are caught in a growing scandal,they overreach."
At www.nytimes.com
