A BUNCH OF NAME-DROPPERS

The point is this: If Ortega and Romley would stoop to such behavior in the wake of negative publicity, what lengths would they go to in order to reap the sort of public relations bonanza associated with a shot heard round the world?"

If the legislators were easily corrupted, law enforcment was also relentless.
Two months after Bartlett went on the payroll, Stedino fired him. Bartlett was all big hat, no cattle." Despite his puffing about his connections with politicians on the take, Bartlett had not been able to put Stedino together with any legislators, let alone corrupt ones. Did Ortega and Romley drop their sting?

They did not. Ortega and Romley had a million-dollar budget with which to seduce officials. Eventually they figured they'd get someone to bite.

Yes, seven politicians took the money. They disgraced themselves.
But I'm of a mixed mind about how much corruption there ever was.
In another recent sting, the federal government spent two and a half years trying to convince a farmer in Nebraska to purchase child pornography.

Two and a half years.
Nine days ago the U.S. Supreme Court ruled the government's successful effort to induce criminal behavior in the law-abiding farmer was excessive.

Like the gentleman from Nebraska, the legislators had been law-abiding.
Ortega and Romley have not been able to show that prior to AzScam a single legislator took a single dirty dollar from a single lobbyist. Ever.

This week jury selection continues for former state senator Carolyn Walker, the only politician who demanded a trial.

There is no excusing her greed, so coarse and palpable as it rolls across the AzScam videotapes that it makes you wince. Still, when law enforcement sets out to make criminals out of citizens, it's not surprising that some people are painfully human in their weakness.

And I cannot help but wonder what would have happened if Gary Bartlett had known me.

With enough money and persistence, people like Ortega and Romley might humiliate of us, even you.