Take the Money and Run. Woo-Hoo.

Speculation is Trent Lott resigned from the Senate to he can escape new ethics rules. Rules that state a departing Congressman has to wait two years before he, or she, can start receiving kickbacks and making illegal bribes, basically sucking the integrity out of the U.S. Government. Two years is a long wait so Trent resigned, or so the gossip goes. It’s speculation, maybe he’s actually found God and is heading to the woods to repent for a spell. We don’t know, and we still won’t when he tells us why he’s leaving, but this speculation fits nicely into my gestalt of the American politician. Aborts on a pledge to his constituents. Runs away from an ethics law. In order to stuff his cheeks with cash. Sounds about right. (( This may come off as cynical, but the truth is I think it’s likely there is only five honest people in Washington, and they’re all eating at soup kitchens, not snorting it up in the Halls of Lincoln and Jefferson. I’ve come to depend, and be proven right time and again, in this belief so it’s hard to shake. It doesn’t make me happy. It’s heartbreaking really.))

November 27 2007 07:41:02 AM EST