No one's completely immune to temptation or base motives, after all, just as no one is completely devoid of integrity (sometimes the latter can be harder to believe, but is just as true). Still, history is full of leaders who viewed public service as just that and, for the most part, acted accordingly, to the benefit of those who entrusted them with power. That doesn't make a Churchill or Jefferson sinless godlike beings, but that they WERE mere mortals yet, despite human flaws, generally acted in the interests of their nations rather than themselves underscores the appalling lack of that ability in modern leaders. Where now are "profiles in courage" such as Sam Houstons? The best we have is JFK winning a Pulitzer Prize for books about them that Ted Sorenson actually wrote.

Power can be a drug, definitely, but most drugs can be beneficial, sometimes necessary, if used wisely; when people knowingly dive into addiction it's not the drugs fault.