Letter: Public interest no longer concerns Congress

Tuesday, March 7, 2006 | 7:46 a.m.

The Sun's March 5 editorial, "Congress dodging ethics reform," is correct when it describes current congressional disinterest in reform as "shameful." Unfortunately, Congress is no longer composed of people who think of themselves as being elected to represent the "public interest."

Instead we have a "new class" of bipartisan professional politicians whose members have only one objective: to retain their seats so as to continue the generous and lavish benefits that flow from incumbency, such as free trips all over the world, expensive parties at exotic locales, cash gratuities, full medical coverage, a healthy retirement benefit, investment opportunities and the ability to move from Congress into high-paying lobbying positions.

They neither care about nor are they any longer accountable to the people they are purportedly elected to represent.

This situation comes about from the power of incumbency and the magic of redistricting, both of which virtually assure perpetual re-election so long as the individuals do not engage in corruptive acts that rise to the egregious level of Randy Cunningham, who set a new congressional standard for the amount of bribes a congressman would accept in return for favors to special interests.

Sadly in our present form of "democracy" the "dirty little secret" is that while all 435 House members and a third of the Senate will face the voters, there are only about six to eight Senate seats and at most 30 to 35 House seats where the races are true contests. Thus, we should not be surprised that when the new Congress convenes next year, it will be business as usual with the public outside looking in while our representatives continue to enjoy the benefits of their corruptive but "legal" behavior.

Donald E. Smallwood, Las Vegas