>"I would say that at the end of the day, I want a governemnt that is served by people who are devoted to ethical behavior and obedience to the law."

Agreed. The problem is how do we get there? Ockham's Razor aside, any objective is hard to reach in a way that is satisfactory to everyone--that's why we have to settle for a majority in our system and hope we have enough safeguards to protect the minority.

We all want our government officials and functionaries to exercise ethical behavior. Trouble is we have difficulty getting this because of human nature, and problems in defining just what ethical behavior is relevant in varying circumstances. George Washington Pinkney gave a wonderful essay on the differences between "honest graft and dishonest graft."

We certainly want those in our government to be devoted to obedience to the law. But, again we have to figure are we talking about a strict construction of the letter of the law, or the spirit of the law? In the first case we would have to rely on lawyers to tell us if we are getting what we want; in the second case we have to wash observed behavior through filters based on our education, experience, religious training, socio-economic grouping, etc. This obviously varies from individual to individual.

So, how do we get where we want to go? We have a government form where we have a lot less problem over the ends than the means to be employed to reach those ends.