majority of them. "I would hope that we don't just overreact." I have no way of knowing if Hazen was accurately quoted or not, but I’d say his explanation for what’s going on falls into the “few bad men” category: find and punish the few bad men, and everything will be fine.

I have at least two problems with this line of thinking. The first is embedded in the idea of “few”. Towards that, I think the Watergate imagery is in fact quite apt. A quarter of a century later, few people could tell you anything about what happened, why, and what was done as a result other than the villain, played by Richard Nixon, resigned and flew away to write books and later become a rehabilitated elder statesman.  

If history is any guide, Hazen has nothing to worry about. We could overreact by a factor of 100 and it wouldn’t be too much. More to the point, it will all be forgotten in twenty years anyway. Remember the savings and loan scandal? For 100 points, name one person who got slapped around as a result. (Double credit if the name you came up with wasn’t Charles Keating.) See what I mean?