Is Your Congressman a Prostitute?

Maybe you’ve seen the 1990 Julia Roberts movie Pretty Woman. In case you were fortunate enough to have missed it, I’ll give you a brief synopsis.
Richard Gere plays Edward Lewis, a money-obsessed, power-obsessed Manhattan big shot that pays a prostitute (Vivian, played by Julia Roberts) to masquerade as his girlfriend for a week. Notwithstanding anything you may have read about prostitutes in Ezekiel 23 or anywhere else, it’s considered a romantic movie. Leave it to Hollywood to make something that squalid appear romantic.
In a memorable scene that reminds me of Congress, Edward Lewis (Gere) lends Vivian (Roberts) his credit card, and she spends thousands of dollars on clothes. The Hollywood writers managed to give the viewers the feeling that Vivian was somehow entitled to all that money and to spend it with no sense of restraint whatsoever.
To draw a closer analogy between Pretty Woman and our not-so-pretty congressmen, let’s suppose Edward was using the company credit card intended for necessary expenses. Let’s further suppose that you had your life savings or retirement fund invested in the company that had issued the credit card to Edward. To wrap it up, let’s suppose that Vivian were your wife (or, if you’re a woman, let’s suppose she’s a he, and he’s your husband.) Now you have a picture of the relationship between Manhattan power brokers and the congressmen we elected to further our interests.
It gets worse. In the movie, Edward Lewis neglects Vivian almost every hour of every day, bringing her out only on social occasions. There’s at least an element of monogamy in their relationship. With Congress, it’s more like an orgy hosted by Roman Emperor Caligula. The invited guest include such sordid characters as Manhattan banksters, the pharmaceutical racketeers, war profiteers, health insurance shake-down artists, money changers, and lawyers.
Congressmen fall into prostitution in pretty much the same ways as other prostitutes.
Some, like Japan’s “comfort women” during World War II, are lured by promises of personal fulfillment while being of service to something larger than themselves. Once in, they find they are trapped.
Congressmen who fall into this category may (or may not) be rescued. Certain others enter the trade with one eye open. They’re total opportunists, but they set self-imposed limits which they mistake for principles. They promise themselves that they won’t end up like such-and-such another congressman. They always do. The odds are strongly against their ever being rescued.
Then, of course, there are the ones who are completely corrupt and know exactly what they’re doing. My religion and my experience teach me that even the worst prostitute (congressional and otherwise) may yet be redeemed. We start by removing them from the environment in which they get into trouble.
What about your congressman? For our opening discussion, let’s take a look at how each member of Congress voted on the “$700 billion bailout,” which quickly ballooned to $1.2 trillion in order to provide a $500 billion in bribes for congressmen. Once it was signed into law, it turned into a blank check costing the taxpayers $14 trillion with almost no accountability. Since then, several bills have been passed in an attempt to correct the problem after the money had already been stolen.
Is your congressman a prostitute or a faithful public servant? Prepare a barf bag before you click here. Your congressman's voting record may not be a pretty sight.