1) I am not rich. I am an Engineer, make decent money and put myself through college with the help of my wife. It took seven years, during which time I often worked full time in various jobs. I now make more then the average, but am far from "rich".
2) $40,000 is not chump change. But recall that Al Gore once said that a man who makes $50,000 a year for twenty years is a millionaire. In both cases, the money adds up. The $40,000 was over five years, which breaks down to $20.00 a day. No one prosecutes someone for that. But they may add those charges on, as you suggest, just to show a pattern. I call that "piling on".
3) I am all for prosecuting crooked politicians. I do believe that virtually all politicians are not completely clean. They all cheat to some extent, as exampled above in my earlier post. So why then do they go after some and not others? ........... Politics, pure and simple. They go after those they want, those who are not 'playing along'.
Why did all the hoopla on Delay and his travels go away? Not because he was guilty, but because he was going to take others down. So, his enemies backed off.
3) Morality? We are talking about politicians here. What does morality have to do with it? That is the cynical comment. In reality I do want our politicians to be clean, but reality tells me they are not. Some are, most are not.
4) Regarding this guy. I have never heard of him, and know nothing about him. I was simply making an observation about the realities of life in the political world. When you are going down, you will be stepped on and the politicians won't bat an eye.
But, I am sorry to say, I still don't agree. When you take what is wrong as given, it gets worse. And, when you don't it often, if not always, gets better. So I cannot agree with your taking as status quo that "politicians will be politicians." You will never correct all wrongs and eradicate all evil, but you do what you can. And you are glad if someone else has done that also. In this case, one more crook is caught.
P.S. I can and should be proud of your accomplishments: yours was not the easiest path to success, and yet you have achieved it.
Regards, EP.