Via Glenn comes this in the WSJ on the UN Oil for Food cover up:

The basic flaws are simple: Anytime you create a large institution, accord it great privileges of secrecy, give it a big budget, and have it run by someone immune from any sane standard of accountability, you are likely to get a corrupt organization.

So, today and tomorrow the 25 leaders of the free nations of Europe will be talking about the new Constitution for the European Union. That EU which has no political accountability, that EU which does not have a basic double entry book-keeping system (yes, really, they are some 600 years behind the times on accounting for the money), that EU which fires and prosecutes whistleblowers, that EU which, in one court decision from the highest court on the continent, was held to be above criticism (the actual decision was that criticism of the EU was not a legitimate expression of free speech, it being something that could be limited in the same manner as blasphemy), that EU which subsidizes Arafat, that EU…..well, you get the picture. As Ms. Rosset points out, it is not that the institution is corrupt, or that certain people in it are, it is that the whole set up makes corruption inevitable.
And no, nothing has changed since the entire Commission was fired for corruption a few years back. As a little example of that how about Edith Cresson, one time Prime Minister of France (there were rumours that she was putting out for President Mitterand to become PM) who became a Commissioner. Her lover who was also her dentist became a highly paid advisor to her office on, I think, refugee problems. When this came out her reaction was instructive. Not, yes, this was a perk too far, or wrong, but how dare you question my actions?
As there is no European Demos there will never be a European Democracy to hold these people to account, so let’s leave eh?