Sen. Daniel K. Inouye's staff contacted federal regulators last fall to ask about the bailout application of an ailing Hawaii bank that he had helped to establish and where he has invested the bulk of his personal wealth.

The bank, Central Pacific Financial, was an unlikely candidate for a program designed by the Treasury Department to bolster healthy banks. The firm's losses were depleting its capital reserves. Its primary regulator, the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp., already had decided that it didn't meet the criteria for receiving a favorable recommendation and had forwarded the application to a council that reviewed marginal cases, according to agency documents.

Two weeks after the inquiry from Inouye's office, Central Pacific announced that the Treasury would inject $135 million.

He died a wealthy politician.

Do you actually mean to tell me that a man elected into a government office actually fell prey to a conflict of interest that turned him from an honourable public servant into a self-serving abuser of the public trust?

No!...Say it isn't so!

I suppose the next thing you'll be telling me is that Santa Claus doesn't exist.