Monday, October 02, 2006

When will we say 'enough is enough'?

Rep Foley resigns, enters rehab

In yet another story of a politician doing something immoral and possibly illegal, Representative Mark Foley resigns and enters alcohol rehab. I've had it.

Politicians are politicians, and neither party has proven to me that they have any interest in serving this country and their constituents ahead of serving themselves. Regardless which party takes control of Congress in November, this will not change. And it's amazing to me how the 'other' party suddenly jumps up screaming about the opposition's shortcomings whenever a scandal like this breaks. I have news for ALL of you...neither party in Washington has ANY basis to claim moral high ground at ANY point, so don't even try it.

Our elected leaders in Congress have failed us, and this latest scandal is just more evidence supporting that. So do we put the Dems in control? Yeah, right. That's the equivalent of dumping gasoline on a fire if you ask me...just because it's liquid and you feel the need to do something doesn't mean you should throw it on the flames.

Politics in Washington won't change until we take the politicians out of it. How? Take the money out. Stop the lobbyists, cut campaign finance to the bone and prosecute fiercely anyone who violates these laws. Cut Congressional salaries to minimum wage or just above and cut benefits.

"No public office should be so profitable as to make it desirable" - Ben Franklin

Until this becomes true, there will always be scandals in Washington. I'm glad Foley resigned and I hope this is investigated. If he solicited sex from a minor, he needs to go to jail for a LONG time.

4 comments:

Anonymous said...

Atta boy, John! It's nice to see you'll call it what it is, REGARDLESS of party affiliation. It's a good thing you included that "dumping gasoline on a fire" remark, or that post would've been totally balanced!--Deano

p.s. You have a new #1 fan after the Lemuria book signing.

John Washburn said...

Welcome back Deano, I missed you. For the record, I am NOT a republican and obviously not a democrat. Read this blog long enough and you'll realize my disdain for politicians. I'm sick of ALL of them.

The message of that post is that politicians are BAD for America, and that's not a partisan thing. It's time for a third party to emerge and start changing things for the better because the GOP and the DNC aren't gonna do it.

Dan Trabue said...

"Take the money out. Stop the lobbyists, cut campaign finance to the bone and prosecute fiercely anyone who violates these laws. Cut Congressional salaries to minimum wage or just above and cut benefits."

Hey, I think I can agree with you all the way through, today. One of my favorite reform measures has always been: Set the congressional salary and medical benefits at the national average salary and if they want to improve their lot, they need to up the national average's lot.

Sounds entirely fair and practical to me (assuming, of course, that they wouldn't just set the minimum wage at $100,000/year...)

Anonymous said...

I think that there should be a limit on how long they (Congressmen) can serve. I think this might show them that they have a lot less power than they assume. (They work for us after all.) This might cut down on them thinking they can get away with anything too.