BRIAN LEITER ON THE UNIVERSITY OF ILLINOIS LAW SCHOOL ADMISSIONS SCANDAL:

The University of Illinois is hostage to the public purse for a lot of its operations, so every request for ‘special consideration’ on admissions from a politician with influence on the purse strings comes with an implied threat: admit this student, or lose funding. One can be sure Chancellor Herman understands that. Attacking university officials over this scandal is like attacking the victim of a robbery for handing over his money.

This is, in fact, the case with many political bribery scandals, where the bribe-payer is more likely to be a shakedown victim than a corrupter of the innocent.