Did I miss a neener, neener opportunity? Damn. Seriously no one has to manufacture the culture of corruption, it has existed at least since Roman times. The only reason the Republicans are having more issues with it is that they are the party in power, fewer folks are trying to corrupt the minority party. As to the culture part, that has more to do with ethics definitions muddied for years by legalisms from both parties. It always amazed me how much more cut and dried the ethics rules were for me when I worked for a defense contractor than they are for the politicians that award the contracts.

And now for something completely different (to borrow from Monty Python) Silence's parable:

A homeowner has a horrible wine stain on his carpet so he calls a carpet cleaner. The cleaner conducts a phone conversation with the homeowner to assess the situation. He concludes that the combination of Bordeaux and that type of cut-pile warrants immediate and aggressive treatment, for the stain may continue to soak through fibers until the whole carpet is ruined. He arrives the next day to clean the stain, which as he surmised is very bad. It is so bad in fact that the only treatment is douse the affected area with lighter fluid and then the surrounding area with fire suppressant and burn the stain. His truck however is a little low on fire suppressant, but the chance of the stain spreading is so great he decides the treatment is necessary anyway. Unfortunately the fire does get out of control and begins to spread. In an attempt to control the blaze he piles all the most flammable materials in an area over in the corner away from which the fire is spreading. To his consternation a breeze through an open window, common this time of day, changes the fire's course and ignites the flammables. Through heroic efforts he manages to stem and then finally after several hours extinguish the fire. Now the cleaner must replace the carpet, and fast. He calls his buddy who sells carpet on the side to get a replacement piece. Lacking proper tacking tools he opts for an adhesive and even though it says the surfaces have to be clean and dry, his buddy assures him it will work anyway. They work feverishly and glue down all the carpet, but unfortunately as they reach the last corner they notice the first corner starting to peel up. They press it back down only to see it peel somewhere else. Round and round they go for an hour attempting to get the carpet to adhere. Finally in disgust the cleaner sends his buddy away and hires a carpet installer to properly install new carpet. The installer does not have the proper shade of gray though, so he substitutes a nice blue but does a fabulous job on the installation and the new carpet is flawless. The homeowner inspects the new carpet and declares the job a complete success.