Corruption and national security

The Democrats need to tie them together.

Kevin Drum is right: the Democrats will want to talk about corruption this year, and the Republicans will want to talk about national security. It seems to me that the Democrats’ play is obvious: point out that the Republicans have been stealing from the defense budget, using the Iraq adventure as a partisan piggy-bank and employment service, and otherwise sacrificing national security for corrupt partisan advantage.

Repeat after me: “The price of Duke Cunningham’s Rolls-Royce would have bought a lot of body armor for the troops.”

Author: Mark Kleiman

Professor of Public Policy at the NYU Marron Institute for Urban Management and editor of the Journal of Drug Policy Analysis. Teaches about the methods of policy analysis about drug abuse control and crime control policy, working out the implications of two principles: that swift and certain sanctions don't have to be severe to be effective, and that well-designed threats usually don't have to be carried out. Books: Drugs and Drug Policy: What Everyone Needs to Know (with Jonathan Caulkins and Angela Hawken) When Brute Force Fails: How to Have Less Crime and Less Punishment (Princeton, 2009; named one of the "books of the year" by The Economist Against Excess: Drug Policy for Results (Basic, 1993) Marijuana: Costs of Abuse, Costs of Control (Greenwood, 1989) UCLA Homepage Curriculum Vitae Contact: Markarkleiman-at-gmail.com