Is Texas to Blame?

What is it about Texas politicians and greed? First there was the furor over John Tower's defense contracting, and now the Jim Wright scandal. Hark back to John Connally's tangled legal history, and recall the get-rich-on-the-public- payroll legacy of Lyndon Johnson. On the national stage, those Texans who have avoided this moral indictment seem to be those who were born rich, like George Bush or Senator Lloyd Bentsen.

How beguiling it is to blame what might be called "Lone Star ethics" -- the symbiotic relationship between the freewheeling Texas business establishment and the state's political leadership that has created an environment where only suckers remain squeaky clean. As Washington Post columnist David Broder put it, "The Texas system has ruined more brilliant political figures than larger states such as California and New York have been capable of producing in the postwar period."

Alas, the go-for-it Texas system has in the 1980s become the American system. From former Attorney General Edwin Meese (not indicted) to imagemaker Michael Deaver (convicted), Ronald Reagan's closest advisers ran aground in part because they envied the easy California wealth of the President's kitchen Cabinet. From Abscam to Wedtech, East Coast Congressmen have found it hard to resist fast-money blandishments and outright bribery. Texas politicians like Jim Wright are far from unique in confusing doing well with doing good.