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Generally the criteria for someone to be a politician is to have a huge ego and some money to go with it. The ultimate ego trip, other than being elected President, is being elected as a Senator. It's been called an exclusive club and the members sure act as though it is. At its best, it's a debating society where ideologues are trumped by rationality (the Clinton inquisition and opposition to Raygun in the 80's)...and at its worst (which we've seen over the past 8 years) its provincial and detached from popular opinion.
The Stevens "farewell" was downright strange and painful to watch. Try as I could to think here's a guy who served 40 years and had a long history in this club...but then I kept remembering what that history was. He played the pork game to the nth degree (and that was "common knowledge" before it led to his conviction) and was a borrish asshole most of the time. But he was a member of the club.
While you're at it, let's not forget Senator Diapers from Louisiana. You'd think someone who broke the holy laws of matrimony would be a pariah in the GOOP...but look at the reaction he got. Even Larry Craig stayed in the club...at least until he could exit "gracefully". The cognitive dissonance is so obvious, but we're not a member of the club...then we'd be oblivious to it.
Democrats have a problem that when one of ours screws up, we don't always jump into lock-step defensive mode. If anything, it's our side that does the picking and are quick to join the feeding frenzy to prove we're not suckers to a person rather than a party. I don't think it's a bad problem at all.
Which such a large party and with so much power available now, it's going to happen...Democrats will get greedy and will get caught. At least I can think when this happens, it's rank and file...such as us in the blogosphere...that get the information and act accordingly. While the GOOP still will have to defend their felons, we've gotten rid of our "problem children" like Jefferson and soon Blago. Let's see the GOOP try to counter that.
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