I'm doing research on Senator Eugene McCarthy (NOT the McCarthy who hunted communists, but the one who ran for president in 1968). While reading the transcripts of some of his speeches from the later 1950s, I noticed he keeps vaguely referring to scandals, corruption, and general immorality in national politics that apparently got a lot of media attention, but doesn't name anything in particular. This did not seem related to the communist witch hunt at all. When I looked up 1950s American politics I couldn't find anything of the sort except Nixon's "Checkers Scandal", which happened in '52. Does anyone have examples of what McCarthy may have been referring to? I apologize if this question seems a little vague.
Look into mob influence in local, state and national politics. A good resource would be a book titled The Outfit.
Robert Caro's Biography of Lyndon Johnson, particularly the "Master of the Senate" might actually be a good resource here for the general character of politics at the national level in the 1950s, as well as specific scandals.