I think there's now a fig leaf over some of the corruption, ... Where there was naked influence peddling before, it's a little more hidden now.

They're having to scramble more to keep this influence peddling under the radar, ... Is that progress?

I think the issue of developers' influence is going to explode in the elections in Montgomery County next year, and our campaign finance laws have clearly failed to restrain their influence.

China's got huge problems. There's enormous corruption all across the board.

If there is corruption in the system, we're going to find them. We're going to expose them and we will get rid of the perpetrators and we will fix these systems, that is a promise.

What bothers people the most about corruption is not the fouling of the process but the impact on real things — energy prices, the Iraq war and Medicare reform. Those are 'facts' that upset people the most. The corruption scandal is all about energy, Iraq, and the prescription drug mess — the dominant issues for the public.