These Men Do Not Represent Me

I can’t take one more slimy, sleazy political figure getting caught with his pants around his ankles[1] and resigning from public office. I just can’t stomach this type of “breaking news” again. I’m not sure what irritates me the most:

• that public servants are clearly abusing their false sense of power to get laid,
• that there seems to be a contingent of the female population that is attracted to married politicians,
• that these politicians only resign when they get caught,
• that they try to fake remorse in their press conferences after the news breaks,
• that their wives stay married to them,

OR

• that to get elected into (and retain) public office in this country you have to put forth the image of the happily married family man (or woman).

It’s probably the latter.

It’s none of my business if someone has an affair, and frankly, I really don’t want to hear about it. (Okay, fine, the whole Eliot Spitzer thing was kind of amusing…in a morbid fascination sort of way.) I don’t think that these creeps’ sexual exploits really have a lot to do with how they perform their job as a representative of their respective constituents. People in this fine nation seem to not understand that you don’t necessarily have to have the same morals as someone to have compatible ideas about social policy. Furthermore, being married or having children or being male does not mean that you are more capable than anyone else of making representative law.

I guess I’m mostly just sick of hearing about it, of hearing the phrase “sex scandal,” of having to watch grown men cry crocodile tears about making the “worst mistake of my life.” It makes me sick that these men live so far outside of the real world while they are supposed to be working for the people who do.

No wonder everyone hates politicians.

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[1] Recent slime includes: Florida Congressman Mark Foley, Idaho Senator Larry Craig, North Carolina Senator (and Presidential hopeful) John Edwards, New York Governor Eliot Spitzer, South Carolina Governor Mark Sanford, and the latest in my neck of the woods – Tennessee State Senator Paul Stanley (No, not THAT Paul Stanley.)