Politics is All Local

Except When Paid for By Billion Dollar Multi-National Corporations.

In the event you have not heard a recent Supreme Court case has tilted the field a bit.
That could be the understatement that undermined democracy as we think we know it.

That was followed by Chris Dodd and now Evan Bayh announcing that they are not running
for re-election. Chris Dodd was plagued with accusations of some cozy deal with Countrywide on a mortgage inflamed into something you would think ranked with Watergate in it's portrayal of corruption from the talking head smear job on him. Evan Bayh talks of his disillusionment with the dysfunctional gridlock wherein a lot of good people are trapped in a systemic maze of strategic maneuvering that has little to do with advancing the common good and more to do with advancing partisan jockeying points. These are all scary signs that no one should feel good about. The undercurrent of all this disgust and disgruntlement has a lot to do with campaign finance frustrations. It takes too darn much money to run for office and the office holders are so tightly scrutinized it's hard to compete now with Boeing, Lockheed Martin, and every major defense contractor's PACs (Political Action Committees) and campaign financing. Corporations can buy public offices, it is now feared quicker than they can buy a Plant in Taiwan.

This is all not a good thing. Aside from thowing up your hands completely, crying "uncle" and switching to the money party, I like Norm Ornstein's idea, expressed in today's Budget fireside chat by C-Span (link below) that Congressional housing budgets at least be increased. A cost of living raise wouldn't be objectionable either. Convert the old Congressional Hotel back into condos (where was that exactly?) and make it affordable for Congresspersons to maintain two residences-one in their home district and one in DC. I have long thought that Congress wasn't getting the best "help" because salaries were not competitive with top private sector jobs- at pretty much any level. Even the GS -whatever attorney staff people are paid less than associates in mid-ranked firms. If we pay our leaders less than we pay our private professionals can we really complain?