Just the other day Dale Anderson, 57, was convicted on 32 counts of extortion, conspiracy, and tax evasion. Mr. Anderson is not a national figure, but, then, how many Baltimore County Executives become household words? But Mr. Anderson will merit a footnote in the history books. The investigation of corruption in Baltimore County that was first aimed at him stumbled, quite by accident, upon the trail of corruption that led into the office of Mr. Anderson’s predecessor as County Executive, Spiro Agnew.
The conviction of Mr. Anderson reveals just how, well, mature our current crop of scandals has become. We are in the fifth scene of the fourth act and the final curtain is not about to fall. But already we have in hand some exegeses-cum-histories of the earlier acts. For example, there is a gripping new study of one scene. The study is a useful book by two Washington Post reporters, Richard Cohen and Jules Witcover, A Heartbeat Away: The Investigation and Resignation of Vice President Spiro T. Agnew.
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