Jos
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- Feb 6, 2010
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A Language of Corruption, Spelled in Sobs and Shame
http://www.nytimes.com/2011/12/21/nyregion/carl-kruger-confesses-in-court-to-taking-bribes.html?_r=1State Senator Carl Kruger, a short pug of a man, rose slowly to his feet on Tuesday in a federal courtroom in Manhattan, and in a boyish voice that squeaked and cracked and folded in on itself, he told of his betrayals.
By taking bribes and ostensibly putting a for sale sign on his door, he betrayed his State Senate office and his Brooklyn constituents who rely on politicians to conduct their business with a modicum of integrity.
This was an Albany power broker fluent in the language of corruption. A federal surveillance report reads like an obscure Abbott and Costello routine, in which Mr. Kruger and the lobbyist Richard Lipsky debate what to call bribes, which are referred to as memos, yknows and our situation.
Growing frustrated at the primal inarticulateness of this lingo, Mr. Lipsky sighed. Youre the one who always phrases it that way, he told Mr. Kruger. So thats why I used that phraseology.