In 1980, Jed Rakoff (before he took the bench) wrote that, for federal prosecutors, the mail fraud statute was "our Stradivarious, … our Louisville Slugger, … our true love." No one would say the same about the federal statutes used to prosecute public corruption. Over time, the law has become less clear and predictable, and what constitutes bribery has become more difficult to articulate, regardless of the statute at issue. The resulting complexity has become pronounced in the case of elected politicians.