Here’s a letter that I sent yesterday to The State (of Columbia, SC):
Asked why he failed to
disclose his receiving, free-of-charge, $250,000 worth of renovation
work on his private residence, Sen. Ted Stevens explained, as you
summarize it, "that some details may have gotten lost amid the busy
life of a senator: the committee meetings, the long hours and the
challenges that come with representing a state four time zones away"
("Stevens combative in questioning during trial," October 17).
I
see the problem. And it suggests that Sen. Stevens (and his overworked,
travel-weary colleagues in Congress) must also be unaware of the
details that permeate those massive bailout bills, omnibus spending
statutes, and other such pieces of legislation. No busy mortal can
possibly keep track of these details. So it would be only right for
Sen. Stevens and those Senators who’ve testified in his defense as
character witnesses to renounce the vast bulk of legislation that
they’ve passed as being filled with provisions too numerous and
detailed for such busy pooh-bahs to have carefully pondered – or even
to have noticed.
Sincerely,
Donald J. Boudreaux
I can no more imagine myself behaving as a successful politician behaves — kissing babies in public; telling strangers that I feel their pain; assuring strangers that I’m to be trusted to spend their money more wisely than then will spend it — than I can imagine myself being a mosquito or a venus fly trap. It is simply inconceivable that any decent human being would behave in ways that the typical politician behaves.
And yet, so many people — so many decent people — believe in (or at least crave, child-like) secular salvation through secular saviors. It’s no surprise, then, that persons unashamed to act deceitfully and disingenuously crawl out from under their rocks to pose as saviors.
