Mark Twain once said, “It could probably be shown by facts and figures that there is no distinctly native American criminal class except Congress.” But if you really want to examine the ethical swamp that results when public service and self-service collide, there are few better places to look than politics in New York City and Albany.

The buffoonery and bribery of years past seem like quaint relics from a Currier & Ives print compared to the recent outbursts and assaults we’ve seen from our civic leaders.

Over the past weekend, Brooklyn state Senator Kevin Parker was arrested for punching a traffic cop in the face when the officer had the audacity to give the elected official a $55 ticket.

Two weeks ago, the generally genteel state Democratic Chairman Herman “Denny” Farrell burst into the Albany offices of New York Post columnist Fred Dicker during a live radio show and screamed at the reporter for printing a story about a “love child” the 72-year-old state senator is having with his girlfriend. “I just came in to let your listeners know what a piece of slime you are,” Mr. Farrell said in the bizarre on-air confrontation. “I’m so freakin’ mad. If this was a neighborhood, you know how this could end.”

Earlier this month, City Councilman Alan Jennings apparently cracked under the strain of an ethics investigation regarding allegations of sexual harassment at City Hall: he was caught by television cameras throwing a chunk of metal at a reporter filming a segment outside the councilman’s Queens home. The image of Jennings hulking out from behind his house and chucking the object with great speed and skill into the small of the reporter’s back was replayed on “The Daily Show” to the merriment of a national audience.

Our local elected leaders’ out-of-control actions are making the Empire State look like a joke. What’s really sad is that the absurd incidents are becoming so common that they are greeted with a bemused shrug rather than shock. The insular and arrogant culture of local politics has made corruption commonplace. Ethical rot has set in. It is time for a housecleaning.

If you want to get really angry, look beyond the entertaining recent installments of “When Politicians Attack” and consider the litany of criminal actions by state legislators in recent years.

Eighteen-year incumbent Republican state Senator Guy Velella from the Bronx pleaded guilty to an influence-peddling scheme involving funds paid to his father’s law firm in return for public contracts. He was jailed on Rikers Island, released when an obscure mayoral board took pity on his complaints about the conditions, and then sent back to prison after public outcry.

In Brooklyn, 23-year Assembly incumbent Roger Green resigned his seat after investigations found that he submitted false expense reports while receiving chauffeur-driven service from a Florida corrections firm seeking state contracts. Eighteen-year Assembly veteran and Brooklyn Democratic Party boss Clarence Norman was indicted for grand larceny and conspiracy for rigging the judicial nomination system. Both Mr. Green and Mr. Norman were easily reelected to their offices this past November in elections without serious opposition – a sign of life in a corrupt one-party controlled county.

Bronx Democrat Gloria Davis – a 24-year incumbent of the state Assembly – pleaded guilty in January 2003 to a felony bribery charge after steering a $880,000 state construction contract in her district to a favored firm.

The former chief legal counsel to Assembly Speaker Sheldon Silver, Michael Boxley, pleaded guilty to charges of sexual misconduct after an assembly staffer alleged that Boxley had raped her. He was sentenced to six years probation in February 2004 and is now listed in the state’s sex offender registry.

In 1997, Republican state Senator John “Randy” Kuhl of Steuben County was arrested for drunk driving, which led to the chairman of the State Standing Committee on Transportation having his license suspended for six months. Subsequently, divorce papers surfaced alleging that he had threatened his former wife with a shotgun during a dinner party at their home. In the fall of 2004, Mr. Kuhl was elected to Congress.

Finally, the chairwoman of the Assembly Alcohol and Drug Abuse Committee – Democratic Assemblywoman Susan John of Rochester – pleaded guilty to driving while impaired in March of 1997, was fined, and ordered to attend a class further detailing the dangers of drinking and driving.

These are just a few vivid examples of the dysfunctional culture that has emerged in local politics over the past several years. Insularity breeds arrogance, and while we shouldn’t expect public officials to be perfect, it is appropriate to hold them to a higher standard. The ethical standards evidenced by the Albany crew in particular would be enough to get them bounced from a Wiffle Ball league, let alone public office.

Which brings us back to the most recent arrogant embarrassment by Senator Parker. When a transit cop wrote him a ticket for blocking traffic in his home district, Mr. Parker allegedly crumpled it up and threw it back in the officer’s face and punched him. When Mr. Parker tried to drive off, the cop stood in his path, prompting another altercation, according to witnesses. After being arrested with third-degree assault, and released from a precinct in Flatbush, Mr. Parker told reporters, “Nothing happened. This was a mountain out of molehill … I was involved in a minor accident. People have traffic accidents,” according to the New York Post. But most people don’t assault police officers, even on our worst days, and most people aren’t elected officials.

To make matters worse, there appears to be a track record of anger and abuse from Mr. Parker. A 13-year NYPD veteran, Marybeth Meyers, spoke on Saturday to the Daily News about an incident in December 2003, in which she witnessed one of Senator Parker’s driving-related outbursts. After watching the senator cut off an elderly couple, nearly causing a collision, Detective Meyers said she got out of her car and was subsequently berated by the senator for questioning his actions. She recalls him saying, “I don’t give a damn! There is nothing you can do about it, b—-! Go f— yourself!” All while standing outside of his car, bearing state Senate plates. This kind of knee-jerk bullying and thuggishness shows contempt for his office and for his constituents.

Mr. Parker’s out-of-control behavior is further evidence of an insular atmosphere of entitlement, where the people elected to make our laws consider themselves above the law. The fact that so many indicted and implicated New York politicians have been serving in office for decades only confirms the pervasive sense that such behavior is business as usual in local politics. This unaccountable and ethically shoddy culture is so corrupted and compromised that it is not recognized as such by the people inside it. New Yorkers deserve better, but we’re not going to get more reasonable and responsible behavior from our local elected officials until we demand it by kicking offenders out of office.