Sununu case was more about politics than corruption per se. He was living large on government expense account, with some things coming straight like "obnoxious rich guy flaunting his wealth" caricatures. He also was never prosecuted, only fired - because he became a political liability.

So I think claim that "there is less political corruption in the US than people think" is going way too far. Most of the corruption is never even uncovered (just check how many government officials and congressmen became rich after they started selflessly serving the people, and how wondrously successful many of them are e.g. in stock trading), and the cases that are uncovered are rarely punished with anything but dismissal and maybe light monetary slap on the wrist. One must be exceptionally unlucky - which usually has more to do with political situation than anything - to land in jail for corruption, and unfortunately that's not because there's no corruption, but seems to be rather because there's so much of it than nobody wants to rock the boat too much. You'll need the funds for the next election campaign, won't you?

> although that too has gotten considerable scrutiny in the media.

And, that scrutiny amounted to exactly nothing.