Trout in the milk and pollice verso

From The Trout in Robert Menendez’s Milk by Jonah Goldberg.  The subheading is Too many politicians feel no shame, much less express it.

“Some circumstantial evidence is very strong,” Henry Thoreau observed, “as when you find a trout in the milk.” 

That line came to mind when I heard about the Robert Menendez allegations. You can come up with all sorts of explanations—maybe even some plausible ones—for why he had hundreds of thousands of dollars stashed in various jacket pockets in his closets. Where else would you keep walking around money? But those gold bars are not just literally but also figuratively, gold. When comedy writers really hit paydirt—a term from goldmining no less!—we say that’s gold! Well, having gold bars whose serial numbers indicated they’d been registered to one of his co-consprirators, well, ain’t dross. I’ve been trying to come up with more hilariously damning—albeit circumstantial!—evidence and the only thing I’ve been able to come up with is if he had a thick sheaf of German-bearer bonds stolen from the Nakatomi tower or maybe an envelope with the words, “Bribe money” on it. 

In Thoreau's day, milk came straight from the farmer, delivered in jugs.  It was a common trope that some farmers increased their income by watering down their milk, scooping water from a creek to add to their canisters of milk.  Unless witnessed, there would be no evidence save for the proverbial trout in the milk.

Goldberg is correct, we are all too accustomed to murky ethics among politicians and it is clear that many of our troubles are sourced to politicians and their ilk who are either incompetent or corrupt.  Frequently, both.  

Natural rights, Rule of Law, Equality under the Law, Due Process - I am devoted to them all and disgusted by pundits and mainstream media who are more than happy to usurp all four and instead form a digital mob to serve as judge, jury, and executioner.

Menendez tests that resolve.  There have been a lot of trout in his milk for a long, long time.  Inordinate numbers of accusations, several investigations, a couple of trials.  

It is awfully tempting to go with the other old saw - no smoke without fire.

But our system works because we do indeed strive to be a government of laws, not men.  

Menendez is our chance to be tempted, but also our chance to demonstrate we do believe in Natural Rights, Rule of Law, Equality under the Law, Due Process.  He should have his day in court rather than the pollice verso (the turned thumb) of the digital mob at the Roman Circus.  Perhaps pant pockets stuffed full of cash and jacket pockets with gold bars will be sufficient evidence this time to show that even members of the nomenklatura can be held equally accountable.  

Pollice Verso, 1872 by Jean-Leon Gerome (French, 1824-1904)

Click to enlarge.