A Politician in Disgrace : The question now is what else Alan Robbins knows

State Sen. Alan Robbins (D-Tarzana), in what has to be the one of the most extraordinary resignation letters in California history, has finally taken his exit from state politics. Given the remorse that he expressed as he took his leave, we wish it were possible to express kinder, gentler sentiments. But it’s not.

Robbins, as he so eloquently put it himself, “drank the heady wine of power and influence” during 18 years as a senator, and as a consequence his “priorities in office became distorted.” They were so distorted that, federal prosecutors say, he conducted his office as a “racketeering enterprise by means of bribery, extortion and obstruction of justice.” A federal complaint accuses Robbins and a California developer of extorting payments of $200,000 from another California developer. Robbins, who was chairman of the Senate Insurance, Claims and Corporations Committee, is also charged with taking nearly $30,000 to influence legislation and with filing a false tax return.

Robbins did not specifically address these charges in his resignation letter, but he did admit that some of his actions were illegal. He also accepted a five-year prison sentence and agreed to pay a $250,000 fine. And, in what undoubtedly will cause more than a few sleepless nights in Sacramento, Robbins also agreed to cooperate in further investigations of corruption in the Capitol.

No one knows, at this point, how wide a net Robbins threw when, as he so daintily put it, “I lost my direction” and engaged in bribery and extortion. But this much is known: Robbins has done a gross disservice to his San Fernando Valley constituents and, by virtue of his position of power in the Senate, the rest of the state.

He also has ill-served government service itself by bringing it down to its lowest denominator of selling influence without regard to the public good.