HEY TRENT, THANKS A LOTT!

BY MICHAEL LINN JONES

So Senator Trent Lott is resigning before the end of the year. What an odd bit of timing, I first thought.

But, silly 'ole me. I have to be educated the hard way about how Washington really works. My first reaction was: do voters have a CLUE as to how the future-soon-to-be-former senator will get along?

I know that the rumor mill started off immediately with a bit about some kind of gay escort service and all that. As if that is a scandal compared to what is going to happen. Congressional salaries/pensions/etc. are a scam; a sham, and a rip-off.

Both parties do it; this is not an indictment of one political party so much as it is a glaring example of how much chutzpah exists among the so-called "servants of the people." Where else in America can one work a job for 5 years and get 80% of their pay for the rest of their lives? Oh, and don't forget the COLA's (Cost of living adjustments) that can (and DO) raise a retired congressperson's income ABOVE what they were earning while in office.

To add insult to injury, the royals elites have devised a scheme known as "ethics," which is always good for a laugh in Washington. See, it might appear to us rubes down on the farm that leaving Congress and then going right to work for the people who were buying lobbying you for all those years as a little questionable.

But not to worry. Currently, those leaving office have to survive one entire year on their pensions, which is 80% of $175,000. Some bright spark decided to increase that to TWO years! What is going on here, folks? Two entire years on such miserable pay? I think such a scenario is more than most millionaires (and their minions) can take.

BUT.....if Trent Lott resigns before the end of 2007.....hooray!, he is limited to only the one year in the poorhouse before signing on to millions in compensation from some lobbying firm. The two-year requirement starts after the new year. It also explains why Dennis Hastert is resigning, too.

I've come to the sad conclusion that the only hope for the future of representative government in the U.S. is a radical change from our current system. Members of Congress should serve just like anyone else does in a jury. You're summoned and you have to do it. One term and you can go home, but in the meantime you'll have to sacrifice your normal life for a while for the greater good of the country.

You know, like those 150,000 odd people in Afghanistan and Iraq right now. Of course it won't ever happen. Like Senator Clinton says, we can't afford to have the U.S. government be a learning center for newbies. No, we need professionals like herself, her husband, Mr. Hastert, Mr. Lott, ET AL.

They've done such a fine job so far.

The question is: for whom, though?
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Cross-posted at Michael Linn Jones.com

*****Telegraph.co.uk has linked to this post...

The Three Horsemen of Shame Finally Retired

There are no tears in my eyes with the sudden announcement that the last of the three horseman for President Bush is leaving public service. He is following in the well respected footsteps of our first horsemen of shame, Tom Delay who never saw anything illegal and you or any court can not prove it. Then of course Trent Lott is also following in the footsteps of shame of former Speaker of the House Denny Hastert, the second horsemen of shame who pretended that a congressional representative (Mark Foley) affection for boy pages was nothing to really worry about. Trent Lott was nothing more than a yes man for anything that would benefit the rich in this nation at the expense of the masses. That makes him the end of the Three Horsemen of Shame. Over at the New York Times they have this little diamond on Trent Lott’s retirement from the Senate…

Lott to Resign His Senate Seat Before Year’s End

By ADAM NOSSITER and DAVID M. HERSZENHORN
Published: November 26, 2007

PASCAGOULA, Miss. Nov. 26 — Senator Trent Lott of Mississippi, who was forced to step down as Republican leader in 2002 after making a remark that seemed to support segregation, announced today that he will resign by the end of the year.


Speaking to a crowd of supporters at a televised news conference in Pascagoula, Miss., Mr. Lott said he and his wife, Trish, had decided that they still had enough “time left to do something else” after his 35 years in the House and Senate.

He said he had “nothing definite at this time,” but suggested he might want to teach. He said he had called President Bush and Vice President Cheney last night to notify them of his decision.

He was re-elected in 2006 to his fourth Senate term and had rebounded to become the No. 2 Republican this year after his party had lost its majority in the Senate. But in recent months, Mr. Lott, 66, has made no secret of his deepening frustration in the Senate, not only because his party is in the minority but also because an increasingly bitter partisan divide this year has left little use for his skills as a deal-maker. - New York Times


Nobody can truly argue that the three horsemen ramrod the agenda for the Republican party and this president without care as to whom they hurt in the process. Even if the majority of the people were opposed to the agenda it did not matter because they were running the show and they were going full speed ahead with a White House that packed up the Veto Pen off to the Smithsonian.

With each one of these so called distinguished leaders of their political party is a scum bag trail of shame. What was once a gentleman with probably the full intention to serve the people evolved into scams and deviation, duck and weave, hide and cover tactics till the game was up. Absolute power corrupts because you think you are the law. That is not the case in this new Kingdom that President Bush and his Three Horsemen thought they built.

It kind of disgusts me that all of the politicians on both sides of the aisle will be slapping him on the back for a job well done over the years. No mention will be made about all the little people he stepped on to get what he wanted. No mention will be made about his special interest friends that benefited year after year with Trent Lott in their pocket because he never failed to cash a campaign donation check.

I will not miss Trent Lott and neither will you. He’s retiring just in time so that he can follow in the footsteps of Delay and Hastert and not be effected by the current rules for becoming a lobbyist in Washington. Now that is where the money is, just ask Jack Abramoff!

Don’t let the door hit you in the back side Trent.

Papamoka

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Cross posted at Bring IT ON!

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