Members of Congress: This job sucks

[WestVirginiaRebel]

Politico:

For members of Congress, the thrill is gone.

They don’t make national policy anymore. They can’t earmark money for communities back home. The public hates them.

And perks little and big, from private jet travel to a little free nosh now and then, have been locked down by ethics rules.

As they head for the exits this year, many leaving Congress say the prestigious job of being a congressman sucks now, and that’s why lawmakers young and old are trading in their member pins for a new life in the private sector.

Take Rep. Dan Boren, an Oklahoma Democrat now in his fourth term. In the old days, the moderate Blue Dog would have been a sure bet to bide his time in Congress, win reelection by serving up earmarks to his constituents and, after a couple of decades, grab the prized gavel of the Armed Services Committee.

But Boren’s on his way out, contemplating work in real estate or energy development back in the Sooner State — retired from Congress at 39.

“If you go through all the things you have to do to get elected and you feel at the end of the day, you’re not pushing the ball forward, it’s time to go do something else,” he said in a telephone interview as he ate yet another in a long string of lunches at the T.G.I. Friday’s in Terminal C of the Dallas/Fort Worth International Airport.

“I’m used to being a player,” Boren said, fondly remembering his days in the state Legislature as he lamented the dim prospects of a moderate moving up the ranks at a time when ideological purity has supplanted seniority as the primary factor in gaining power. “You want to get things done for your constituents. If you can’t ever become speaker or a committee chairman, why are you doing it?”

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The thrill is gone, poor things.

[Argyle58]

I cannot believe that they used Dan Boren as an example. He is the last Dimocrat representing Oklahoma's national congressional delegation. He is also the last member of a corrupt political machine, and the only reason he has lasted four terms is because of his uncle, David Boren, long time Senator and current president of the University of Oklahoma. No doubt that a seat in Congress is not the kind of thing he was raised to believe it was!!