Zambito: 80% of politicians are honest
Probably the most surprising thing Lino Zambito said on TLMEP Sunday evening is that he thinks 80% of politicians are honest.
Probably the most surprising thing Lino Zambito said on TLMEP Sunday evening is that he thinks 80% of politicians are honest.
Steve Quilliam 23:59 on 2012/10/21 Permalink
Yeah, that’s a little high !
Clément 05:28 on 2012/10/22 Permalink
Still leaves one out of five who is dishonest. There are a lot of politicians out there (municipal, provincial, federal)
Kate 08:17 on 2012/10/22 Permalink
I think the point is that it’s easy to get so cynical that you think they’re all crooks, so what’s the point in voting or participating in any way. But in fact most of them aren’t, which means you’ve still got to think about it, determine for yourself who’s crooked and who’s not, and make your choice accordingly.
Steve Quilliam 09:21 on 2012/10/22 Permalink
A crooked politician doesn’t mean he is a bad politician. Personally I wouldn’t mind voting for a crooked politician if the city is well managed. It’s just a question of priority.
Kate 10:32 on 2012/10/23 Permalink
Except if the crooked politician is doing what’s alleged and inflating contracts as much as 35% for bribes, that isn’t good management. Crooked politicians end up organizing things to better fund themselves and their partners in crime, not to get the best work done for the best price for the city. By definition, a crook is always going to have his priorities in the wrong order.
Look, I wouldn’t mind if these guys were maybe occasionally getting a nice dinner bought for them by somebody, but we’re talking millions and millions of public dollars siphoned away over years. That’s everyone’s money, tax money from all the landlords, a portion of everyone else’s rent. Money is time. They have stolen time and effort from everyone in this city. It’s a fucking shame.
Tux 13:11 on 2012/10/23 Permalink
Are they crooked if they knew of and allowed crooked dealings to go on, even if they weren’t personally involved in them?
Kate 19:21 on 2012/10/23 Permalink
Interesting question. I think the answer may mostly be yes – it’s like being the accessory to a crime. Of course proving who knew what is not going to be easy.
I’m interested to know how much of what went on was motivated by greed, and how much by fear. Because there must have been fear, although we haven’t heard so much about it. You don’t go see Mr. Rizzuto in the back bar of the Consenza without a few qualms.