[Hank Rearden]

Complete, utter crap. I'm not surprised, given your screenname, though.

35 years on the public tit is NOT something envisioned by our Founders, who strongly believed in part-time, amateur politicians who had real-world experience and the desire to return to the real world ASAP.

Not gasbag, money-squandering, vote-buying, vote-stealing professional parasites like Breaux. The only "transcendent" thing he's done is help drive up the national debt. That will persist for decades if not centuries - if our theoretically-free Republic lasts that long.

There's timeless political impact for ya.

[justshutupandtakeit]

Just can't relinquish the comfortable MYTHS can you. Virtually every one of the politicians of the days of the Founders served decades in government. Washington, Madison, Monroe, Jefferson are some of those "parasites," Adams, George Clinton, JQAdams, Calhoun, Clay, Webster are other non-Founders who did the same.

In FACT, it is very rare to find a major politician of that era who DIDN'T serve in governmental posts for decades. Why don't you name some (other than Lincoln and professional soldiers) who were examples of the MYTHOLOGICAL citizen-politician? I will be waiting a looong time for than one.

You probably believe Icareus really flew too close to the sun too, don't you.