These petty abuses are symptoms of a much more serious disease. It's high-altitude political edema. Flying high above the unwashed masses, breathing the rarefied air of the self-anointed, the minds and egos of government officials swell rapidly in the absence of the oxygen of everyday life. King James McGreevey and his ilk absorb the perks of power, demand gratitude for their "selflessness," move on to grander theft, and then send their jesters out to stifle the few grumbling serfs who grasp that the powerful, once elevated, will do anything to keep their feet off the ground and keep reaching for our pockets.