Gotta Draw the Line Somewhere

I bet there's rich folks eatin',
In a fancy dining car,
They're probably drinkin' coffee,
And smokin' big cigars,
But I know I had it comin',
I know I can't be free

--Folsom Prison Blues, Johnny Cash

Remember, democracy never lasts long. It soon wastes, exhausts, and murders itself; there never was a democracy yet that did not commit suicide.

--John Adams

Money and Corruption
Are ruining the land.
Crooked politicians
Betray the Working Man.

--I am Your Man, The Kinks

___________

Randy ''Duke'' Cunningham, ''one of the slimiest guys to come through Congress in recent memory,'' gets an annual Congressional pension of as much as $64,000, even as he sits in jail serving an eight year felony corruptions charge. So do more than 20 other convicted members of Congress. So you may lose your seat, and you may have to hang up the deacon's robe for a while, but you won't go without bread.

Just ask sleazeball Dan Rostenkowski, who continues to draw an approximately $126,000 annual pension after facing a slew of corruptions charges and receiving a 15-month mail fraud conviction.

Michael Crowley, editor at The New Republic, writes this month at Reader's Digest, ''It's infuriating that we have to pay for the retirement of these crooks, but it's just as scandalous that lawmakers aren't doing anything about it (''Pension Plan for Cons.'')

''There has been little political will," says Melanie Sloan, executive director of the watchdog group Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington, probably because each feels his head will be next on the chopping block, according to Rep. Mark Kirk (D-IL).

''The lesson here is that Congress can't be trusted to police itself. Need one more bit of proof? In 2005 an attempt at reform never made it out of the House committee that would oversee a change in pension rules. The committee's chair that year: Rep. Bob Ney of Ohio. The same Bob Ney who pleaded guilty last fall to doing illegal favors for a lobbyist in return for things like a lavish golf junket to Scotland. And even though Ney sold his influence, he'll still be eligible for a $29,000-a-year pension when he turns 62.''

''Probably the only thing that will get Congress to act is public outrage. A good first step: Go to congress.org to send an e-mail to your representatives. Tell them it's time they passed a new crime bill -- one that takes Congressional convicts off the dole.''

Since they are so keen to strip entitlement programs for the average citizen to the bone, this is one bit of pork none of us will miss.

--Lisa