Why the Sestak Job Offer Is a Big Deal

Yes, there's probably something to what Galupo says. If it's scandal, Washington's the place. And it's time voters got very tired of politics as usual for reasons other than their wallets.

I'm one of those who's happy Tea Party folks are managing to unseat a few fat cats in our nation's headquarters for shennanigans. Any progress is welcome. What worries me is that their reasoning is so limited, their constitutional rights and their money being threatened the impetus for action. Too much that is important is being missed in the process, and the end result of the action will not have much effect on the deep and dark problems in American politics.

Where is the outrage that sitting senators and representatives have been the reason that nothing successful has been done, in decades of possibilities, really to "win" the war of drugs, now a problem shared with Mexico thanks to our continuing as the big market for drugs and as the big supplier of guns for the bloody slaughter south of the border.

Where, after legislation passed in 1986, has the followup management or passage of better legislation been on the illegal immigration problem, now a national calamity affecting health care, national security, and other areas? How many sitting senators and represntatives have been in office through most of those more than 20 years?

And where is the outrage over deaths by shooting in this country? Guns have been an accident or an intention waiting to happen in the U.S. for many years now (and we are major exporters to other countries too) without any clear attempt at solution. Meanwhile, our rights to life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness are abridged by the right to gun ownership exercised by comparatively few. Fair? Whatever you think, thank those long-sitting senators and representatives for taking care of America for us.

There's more, as you know, but my point should be clear. Folks like Senator Bob Bennett (R, UT) have found out that the wrath of voters, well organized voters in his case, can be fearsome. Why is the wrath a kind of selfish wrath, though, focused on overtaxation and personal rights, when long-standing national problems now in crisis stage could well be involved? Look how long the ballooning of health coverage costs, now twice per person in the U.S. than anywhere else, were let go before action--totally inadequate and lobbyist-shaped--was taken. I started following that problem 25 years ago and watched sitting senator and representaive do nothing much for years and years. And the lobbyists problem in health care is a symptom, too, of the money in politics one, long out of control and in need of attention by sitting senators and representatives who have successfully ignored it (with the help of lobbyist monetary persuasion).

Yes, it's time voters were unhappy with politics as usual, outraged enough to actually do something to clean up politics by voting ALL too-long-sitting rascals out.

Ron W. Smith of UT 1:34PM May 28, 2010