Cash, Secrets, and Impeachment

There is no easy aspect to transition to democratic governance. This is true of systems emerging from Middle Eastern dictatorships and for systems still grappling with the legacy of communist domination.

One example that illustrates this rather succinctly is the Lithuanian Parliament's recent act impeaching the country's President. His crimes include everything that draws attention to the most basic wrongs of political intrigue.

President Rolandas Paksis relayed classified government documents to a Russian businessman who lacked any semblance of security clearance in exchange for sizeable monetary contributions from the businessman to Mr. Paksis's election campaign account.

In gratitude for various favors granted as a result of information contained in the classified documents (especially relating to the conclusion of several important government contracts), Mr. Paksis granted the Russian businessman Lithuanian citizenship. Mr. Paksis then used the funds from this formerly foreign source to fund his Presidential campaign.

This may seem rather like a repeat of Mr. Clinton's problems from accepting campaign contributions from Buddhist monks, but Mr. Paksis's situation is much more involved than that. As part of his defense, Mr. Paksis argues that he did not take campaign money from foreigners because the Russian businessman is a Lithuanian citizen. Never mind that he only has that status because Mr. Paksis gave it to him.

Then there is the problem that the information transacted was classified. This is the ultimate do-not-do for any national executive. Classified information is a government's prize posession. It is the ultimate "we know, but we can't tell you" story. Some people regard the fact that some information is designated "classified" as special reason to be skeptical of its content in the same way they are skeptical of quotes attributed to anonymous sources in respectable press publications. Giving this valuable information - whatever the nature of its content - to a third party in exchange for campaign cash seems qualified grounds for removal.

It would be one thing if this were Mr. Paksis's first encounter with questionable activities. Unfortunately it is not. During one of his previous terms as prime minister, Mr. Paksis antagonized the Parliament and the public and was thought to accept some money back-channel in exchange for imposing a monopoly contract with Williams International to manage the oil refineries and part of the gas pipeline. That incident and its impact somewhat tainted Mr. Paksis for several years.

Mr. Paksis also is implicated in other curious stories involving bribes, pay-offs, and generally "creative" dealings with the Russian organized crime gangs. In other words, he is without doubt the Lithuanian version of the "Comeback Kid".

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