Where the graft comes sweepin' down the plain
Humorist Will Rogers, Oklahoma's favorite son, once joshed a former U.S. Treasury Secretary: "Mac, knowing you was manager of Uncle Sam's Treasury so long, I thought you'd be well heeled." Rogers' homespun irreverence about official greed may be timeless, but Oklahomans today are not laughing. A three-year federal investigation of the state's elected officials has found that graft is routine and nearly ubiquitous in Oklahoma county government, and has added as much as $10 million a year to the state's road-maintenance costs. Only one county...