Reply #7: I'd add to your number four that many Democrats

[truedelphi]

In office are no more our friends than are coyotes would be to squirrels.

Diane Feinstein attends opera with George Schultz and his wife. She votes in war, and then sits back and watches her husband receive 27 million dollars in contracts within six weeks of the launch of Iraq War II.

But she has rearranged the Senate Ethics Laws so that as long as a Senator is voting for a bill that has a purpose other than enriching a Senator, it is not a conflict of interest to do this.

\Which, of course, prevents her from voting for the 2 Billion dollar, enrich Richard Blum Act, should that Act ever be presented, but does little to stop her insider voting pattern.