show of hands.....

[callmeslick]

.....anyone surprised?
http://www.washingtonpost.com/news/morn ... on-office/


seriously?

[Will Robinson]

Hell no. They almost all end up using their position in government to get paid big bucks to screw up government once they get out.

Got to give it up to guys like Gore who think bigger and decided to screw up a larger body than just the one country..he's an alpha scumbag blazing new trails!

I've been saying it for years now. If you are voting for an R or a D at the national level you are part of the problem.

[vision]

I've been saying it for years now. If you are voting for an R or a D at the national level you are part of the problem.

You have actually got it backwards. The average citizen has virtually no effect on national elections. There is plenty of research to back this up. It's at the local level you should be voting for something other than R & D (where possible). I voted more than 80% "other" in 2014.

[Will Robinson]

I've been saying it for years now. If you are voting for an R or a D at the national level you are part of the problem.

You have actually got it backwards. The average citizen has virtually no effect on national elections. There is plenty of research to back this up. It's at the local level you should be voting for something other than R & D (where possible). I voted more than 80% "other" in 2014.

Not backwards. Quite precisely on target.
A vote for a D or R at national level DOES help them perpetuate the problem!

They spend half a billion dollars per cycle to attract those votes you say don't have an effect....
I'm thinking they know how they got there and they do, in spite of your interpretation of a study, value the votes they get.

[vision]

So I guess you are talking about Senators and Congressmen since we don't choose the President, nor his cabinet, nor any of the Justices, nor most of the people how affect our government at a national level? Just the legislative branch, who has the worst approval rating of all and is incapable of doing their jobs?

Ok.

[Will Robinson]

So I guess you are talking about Senators and Congressmen since we don't choose the President, nor his cabinet, nor any of the Justices, nor most of the people how affect our government at a national level? Just the legislative branch, who has the worst approval rating of all and is incapable of doing their jobs?

Ok.

Why are you guessing what I'm saying when I said it so clearly?

If you are voting for an R or a D at the national level you are part of the problem.

President is at the national level too and he picks his cabinet. If you voted for Obama you voted for him to give you the cabinet. You voted for him to select appointees to the courts, etc. etc.

[vision]

If you voted for Obama you voted for him to give you the cabinet.

Except the general public doesn't pick the president, the Electoral College does. And citizens only have a marginal say in what candidates come from each party, which again, doesn't determine a presidency.

[Will Robinson]

The electoral college has zero input towards selecting the two choices. Basically a rubber stamp of the candidate chosen and presented to them whereas the Party's nomination based on polling and the primary process, both fronts that we voters alone drive, has a huge impact on that. The win of the final vote is the last of many times we voters do have a say in who is President.

[callmeslick]

If you voted for Obama you voted for him to give you the cabinet.

Except the general public doesn't pick the president, the Electoral College does. And citizens only have a marginal say in what candidates come from each party, which again, doesn't determine a presidency.

toss in the fact that a MINORITY of both parties select the candidate(a very small minority, actually) or candidates that go to General Election, and you have the recipe for a Legislature which is bought and paid for by big-money interests. The Presidential election, while governed by the Electoral College rules is the only real national referendum we hold, and that is subject of course to big-money donors and the same Primary constraints.

[Tunnelcat]

Yet another self-serving traitor to our country.

[Will Robinson]

Yet another self-serving traitor to our country.

Really? I was under the impression it is legal and welcomed by the legislature therefore far from traitorous. A serious flaw in our collective stewardship of the republic is more like it. Hence my previous comment.

[Tunnelcat]

Oh, it's quite legal, unfortunately. But in MY opinion, it's traitorous the very people these greedy, self-serving bastards are supposed to be representing. It's still to be seen if David Brat, his tea party usurper, will succumb to the same disease that infects everyone else in Washington.

[callmeslick]

actually, for those not aware, Virginia has had a long tradition and history of politicians operating at a bit higher plane(likewise Delaware, I'm blessed). This sort of stuff besmirches that, but I never did see Cantor as too trustworthy, and apparently his constituents agreed. And then, we have THIS weasel:

http://www.cbsnews.com/news/former-gov- ... ion-trial/

apparently, a defense of 'it was the wife's idea', didn't fly.