I Hate Politicians

I used to do a lot more advocacy/fundraising for politicians. In the dark days of the Bush administration electing anyone with a D after their name seemed to be a good enough cause. I used to talk with them and meet them. I wasn't naive, but some of them were... bad. I don't mean bad as in "more conservative than I would like." I mean literally bad people.

Seth Williams is a local politician, not a federal candidate. I never raised money for him. But he did show up to our Drinking Liberally a few times. The local nascent progressive community supported him. His predecessor was horrible. He didn't even promise to be much better, just better (I'll give him credit for not promising the moon. He didn't.) He wasn't better. He was horrible, and also, too, horribly corrupt.

Federal prosecutors on Monday urged a judge to send former Philadelphia District Attorney Seth Williams to prison for five years — the maximum term allowable under the law — at his sentencing hearing next week.

In a memo to U.S. District Judge Paul S. Diamond, government lawyers described the city’s fallen top prosecutor as a crooked politician who took every opportunity to enrich himself through fraud, theft from his campaign fund, and bribes accepted from generous donors.