Wednesday, March 18, 2015

What A Schock

AaronSchock-300x157Rep. Aaron Schock (R-IL) resigned because he was under suspicion of mismanagement of his use of campaign and taxpayer funds.

He had his office decorated for free like the set of Downton Abbey and  set up an Instagram account that had more pictures of him with his shirt off or with celebrities than a Kardashian.  (Doesn’t hurt that he’s built like a well-muscled frat boy.)  In other words, he didn’t know the meaning of “discrete.”  Naturally his lavish proclivities caught someone’s attention.

There are plenty of ways to be on the take from rich benefactors who feed your campaign fund, who make life comfortable for you and your loved ones, and who make sure that their interests and causes get frontsies when bills concerning them come up for a vote.  The trick is to make those ways so invisible and untraceable that you can go through your entire career in the pocket of a donor and no one else knows or at the most it’s just seen as part of good constituent service.  The quid pro quo is hush-hush-hush.  Life goes on and someone pays to wax the Explorer.

It’s not unlike men who fool around on their wives; if they’re smart, no one will know they’ve got a little something on the side, but if you parade through the halls of Congress with your girlfriend — or take trips with your personal photographer — you’re just asking for trouble.

I can’t decide if Mr. Schock was just stupid or was getting bored with being a congressman and didn’t care if he got caught.  No doubt he’ll land on his feet somewhere, either as a commentator on cable news or as a model for Abercrombie & Fitch.

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