And, of course, the brazen shakedown of private businesses by politicians becomes a problem that grows exponentially with the size of government.
By the way, re: your story about Bo Pilgrim. Years ago I remember listening to a radio interview with Gore Vidal who said that his father was a bagman for LBJ - - said he routinely delivered brown paper bags full of cash right to the the man's desk.
Interesting.
Guess all that money must have affected his testicles.
But at least we know now where that mysterious shoebox full of $100 bills came from, that suddenly became a cause notorious in the divorce of Sen. Herman Talmadge of Georgia (who'd been on the Watergate Committee as a representative of paragonship, along with Sen. Montoya of New Mexico, widely believed to be the most corrupt member of the Senate at the time -- that was before Sen Hugh Scott, the minority leader, got caught taking money from Gulf Oil two years after Watergate).
My own theory had been that "Humman" got the shoebox from the late Sen. Richard Russell of Georgia, who in turn probably received it from Lyndon Johnson when he was elevated to the Senate. It was Lyndon's "walking-around money" that he doled out to favored senators, part of his political vig, and before that came from the elder Vidal.
At least that carries us one set of hands further back in the food chain. Like the man said, "follow the money."
Someone needs to write a book, How the Corrupt U.S. Senate Worked Under the Corrupt Lyndon Johnson.