Moral perfection, together with omnipotence, is in the realm of deity. It is beyond the power of humanity. Nonetheless, President Lee Myung-bak had the audacity to claim that his was the “morally perfect administration.”

On Sept. 30, 2011, he was quoted as saying at a conference with his top aides, “Ours is a morally perfect administration. As such, not even the smallest blemish should be left upon it.”

When this remark was made public, his aides rushed to tone it down: He meant to say that he took no illegal contribution to finance his bid for the presidency in 2007. If so, he undoubtedly wanted to set himself apart from his predecessors, all of whom took illicit money from business concerns to finance their campaigns.

For each presidential election, the National Election Commission sets the maximum amount of money a presidential candidate is allowed to spend on his campaign. Inflation and changes in the population are the key variables in determining the amount.

Each candidate is required to file a post-election report on his campaign finances. His election is made null and void if his top campaign manager or accountant is sentenced to a prison term or fined 3 million or more for having overspent the legal limit by 0.05 percent or more.

No candidate has reported overspending in the past. But criminal investigations, which came too late to nullify the election, found that candidates spent much more than the amounts they reported to the election watchdog.

For instance, former President Roh Moo-hyun was found to have spent 38.7 billion won in 2002, 11.3 billion won more than the amount he filed with the National Election Commission. His rival, Lee Hoi-chang, reported he spent 22.6 billion. But he was found to have taken as much as 82.3 billion won in illegal contributions from corporations.

The legal limit to campaign spending in 2007 was 46.6 billion won. After he defeated his rival, Chung Dong-young, in the election, Lee reported he had spent 37.2 billion won on his campaign. Chung reported 39 billion won.

But his claim to a clean campaign needs vetting, given the remarks by one of his closest confidants, Choi See-joong, who acknowledged that he took money from a businessman and used it to finance opinion polls and other campaign activities. If so, Lee will have to hold himself ultimately accountable. It does not matter whether he knew about it.

The case involving Choi, who belonged to Lee’s six-member inner circle that managed his presidential campaign, is not the only corruption scandal. Two other members of the inner circle ― former National Assembly Speaker Park Hee-tae and Lee’s older brother, Rep. Lee Sang-deuk ― are tainted as well.

Rep. Park had to resign as National Assembly speaker when he was found last year to have attempted to buy votes when he ran for the chairmanship at the ruling party’s earlier national convention.

No corruption charges are formally filed against Lee’s brother yet, though suspicions are raised against him. One of his aides was convicted of bribery, and as much as 700 million won in cash of dubious origin was found to have been kept in his private coffers at home.

Moreover, some of President Lee’s proteges have been convicted of bribery or are under criminal investigations on charges of corruption. Some of the first lady’s relatives have been convicted of bribery as well.

Most notable among them is Park Young-joon, a former vice minister of knowledge economy, who served Lee as his chief secretary when he was president-elect. On Wednesday, prosecutors served a warrant of search and seizure against him, as he was suspected of taking 1 billion won in bribes from the same businessman that gave Choi an undisclosed sum of money.

What about Lee himself? He breached the law when he bought a plot of land under the name of his son. He wanted to build a new home and move into it when his term in office expired in February next year. This ill-advised property purchase, though canceled later, added another indelible blemish on his morally deficient, corruption-ridden administration.