The first of those costs is corruption. The corruption can be but isn’t necessarily financial. More often, it involves a warping of mission, a pull from the purpose that originally animated a person or enterprise to pursue a goal.
This leads to a second cost—the steady erosion of support and standing. When it becomes clear that an organization stands for nothing larger than personal retribution, it becomes almost impossible for others to honor or respect it.
The shabby saga surrounding Indiana Rep. Ed Clere—a Republican, for the moment anyway, from New Albany—is a telling example…