http://link.email.washingtonpost.com/r/VP6EHT/
FX9QHQ/ZV5JW4/KCKYNP/H0PYL/OS/h
John Edwards's indictment brings to mind the quote
"Power Corrupts, Absolute Power Corrupts Absolutely".
Here is its origins:
It arose as a quotation by John Emerich Edward Dalberg Acton, first Baron Acton (1834–1902). The historian and moralist, who was otherwise known simply as Lord Acton: he expressed this opinion in a letter to Bishop Mandell Creighton in 1887:
"Power tends to corrupt, and absolute power corrupts absolutely. Great men are almost always bad men."
Another English politician with no shortage of names - William Pitt, the Elder, The Earl of Chatham and British Prime Minister from 1766 to 1778, is sometimes wrongly attributed as the source.
He did say something similar, in a speech to the UK House of Lords in 1770:
"Unlimited power is apt to corrupt the minds of those who possess it"
For more information on John Edwards read:
The Politician by Andrew Young (St Martin's Press) February, 2010
There is an oft quoted take on the original quote about power which is:
"Power is Delightful; Absolute Power is Absolutely Delightful".