The Nation: Right On The Money.

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I couldn't agree more.

One of the reasons I decided to start this blog is that, as with so many of these other phoney, government-hating politicians who have taken over the mantle of leadership and are re-shaping public service into a system for the "haves" of our society, while looting the Treasury and eliminating programs for the least of us, not enough is being written of their day-to-day dismantling of society.

We seem to have forgotten what public service is all about.

An odd and terrible combination of events has taken place. Our government is being supplanted with fools, elevated to the halls of power in many cases because they've been turned into the "lesser of two evils;" often made out to be the devil that we know, chosen because we just don't know if the newcomer has possibly (gasp!) lied about something. The "something" is always inconsequential, and it's nearly always turned out to be fabricated, or the whole matter has been dropped. Sometimes, it's just the "good old boy" network.

Hastert is one of these guys. He couldn't win a primary race for the Illinois legislature in 1980. His opponent in the primary had a stroke a few weeks later, and Hastert was handpicked by the part bosses to run anyway. His first term in the U.S. House came when the incumbent died of cancer and he was (you got it!) drafted by a convention of Republicans to fill the seat.

While the Fourth Estate has quite literally ignored this kind of wholesale emptying of the public trust (I suppose, because, for one thing, it's just too crazy to believe it's happening), the new "good old boy" network has turned into a curious blend of Darwin's waiting room types and misanthropes. There are probably some psychotics in there, as well (Dan "Melonhead" Burton comes to mind).

I, for one, am not waiting for the next installment of this horror story.

There's plenty of daily dirt to dish on Denny Hastert.