J Edgar Hoover

He was harnessed by politics and also by a girdle.

lol:

I was also thinking he was a drag on the economy.

his closet was larger than most (probably because of the mirrors)

come on people get serious.

That closet door was sometimes slightly ajar. I'm sorry, he was such a fake that I can't take him seriously, not that isn't important that he did as much damage as he did good. In this day and age, I don't believe he would have a chance of surviving in that position. But we've had politicians who are just as bad who survive so who knows?

Oh, come on, kev -- let's have some of that traditional stoic British humor.

Lightwizard, I have oodles of stoic british humour, but I'm really seriously interested in how , 30 years after his demise, you perceive the little toerag, or to put it another way the number one law enforcement officer of the united states of america, and I dont want my opinion in any way to influence yours.

There was a recent documentary on our PBS on J. Edgar and is was not kind. It tied him to the Mafia, for one thing and just fell short of saying he blew his way to the top. He managed to organize the agency like it was its own little country with its own set of rules and that it did not answer to any higher authority. FDR kept him somewhat at bay and so did Truman, but they let him do what suited their purposes. Eisenhower was mamby-pamby with him, Kennedy was holding his feet to the fire and Nixon would gladly drop his pants for service. I don't know if J. Edgar ever mistook the slooped nose in the dark for another organ but I doubt he came away with buggers in his mouth. Does that answer your question?

He was a nasty piece of work. The reason why no one confronted him for a long time was that he had bullies for friends and (most important) files on just about everyone.

Ah, the files! The PBS bio revealed that in detail. He was blackmailing nearly everyone in government and I would not doubt that there was some blackmail in return. The only person in our history that I could pick out who would be as low an example of humanity would be Boss Tweed.
However, we could undoubtedly work over many British officials and politicians throughout the ages, some which might make J. Edgar look like an angel.
He was, in fact, catching criminals but seldom the ones who had friends in high places (including him).

You can find his ENTIRE personnel file online, by the way.