Too connected: It almost seems like politics is too much a 'me' game

Maybe the thing that so many people liked about former Republican vice presidential candidate Sarah Palin was that her life seemed much more ordinary than that of your average politician.

She did not have the right clothes (they had to buy them for her), did not always have a polisher behind her ready to erase any bit of mixed message and she even had a family that had the bumps and bruises.

Contrast that to the pompous, celebrity-seeking, privilege-expecting men and women who seem to think that service to their country includes megaperks for themselves and an almost guaranteed "I can do what I want" attitude. Pay attention to the pockets that are lined and the fortunes that are made by many in the big politics game and you start to wonder.

Maybe there is something to that term limits thing after all.

One of the most disappointing things about modern government is how often our leaders seem to take advantage of us -- of our good will, of our money and of our trust.

North Carolina's latest finding shows that connections and power still stink up politics -- as does a sense of entitlement to the good life.

Perhaps our next move should be to have our leaders live not in Governor's Mansions, but in more modest abodes -- and to put them on a strict personal budget.

Maybe then, they will have more respect for ours.

Published in Editorials on May 13, 2009 11:19 AM