Into the Cesspool

I'm convinced that it doesn't matter who we send to DC to represent us. We could send the most idealistic and compassionate people in the world and, in short order, every last one of them would be corrupted.

It would be like dropping a clean glass in a cesspool; some of the crap will stick!

While I certainly wouldn't describe any of the Tea Party-backed freshman legislators as a clean glass, I have no doubts that, at least, a few of them headed to Washington with the goal of trying to implement their Tea Party rhetoric. But as TPMMuckraker reports,

Tea Party-backed candidates swept into office on the wave of anger over the government's bailout of Wall Street are now bringing in the big bucks from the financial sector at the same time they're lining up to rewrite financial regulations...The 10 Republican freshmen on the House Financial Services Committee have taken in nearly $600,000 from the financial industry since Election Day, according to the Sunlight Foundation...

It seems to be an incontrovertible fact that money corrupts and, in the halls of our various legislative bodies, mega money corrupts quickly. Since one of the prime objectives of almost any elected official is to get reelected, the people and corporations that throw around the most money are the ones our elected leaders listen to.

It rarely seems to matter that what the moneyed interests desire goes against what a candidate campaigned on. If you want their money -- and what elected official doesn't? -- you grab it with both hands and then give them whatever they want.

That's how the game works.