Seven Republicans are being sentenced this week for corruption -a former Pennsylvania House Speaker, two of his relatives, and others who worked for him.
Ten of 12 Democrats have already been sentenced on corruption charges, including a former House Democratic Whip. Last week a former state senate minority leader agreed to plead guilty to federal corruption charges.
It has been a little more than a year since two county Common Pleas judges pleaded guilty in the "cash for kids" scandal where they received payments from a private detention center where they sentenced juveniles.
A current state Senator is currently under trial for using her legislative staff to further the campaigns of herself and her sister, a state Supreme Court justice.
Lord Acton, a British moralist and historian, put words to the phenomenon that was as true when he said them 150 years ago as it is today: "Power tends to corrupt, and absolute power corrupts absolutely." He added that "Great men are almost always bad men."
We're sure there are sufficient exceptions to the latter part of his posit to question its pessimism, but the actions by so many of those in the most powerful positions in Pennsylvania government make the search for those exceptions increasingly difficult.
The house cleaning undertaken by then-Attorney General Tom Corbett not only brought some very powerful and influential people to justice, it shed light on what was - and perhaps still is - a culture of corruption.
The American system of Democracy with its checks and balances and frequent popular elections tends to lessen Lord Acton's predictive message than what it is in more despotic cultures, but it is no guarantee that some will abuse the trust placed in them by the electorate.
Corruption in government knows no party affiliation; it has no conscience. Unfortunately, it will probably always be with us.