People like this get elected over and over again because the franchise has been given to the proudly ignorant, the equally even more proud degenerates and to those who are hangers-on and societal parasites. The vote, which all and sundry proclaim to be oh, so precious and important, is granted to the dregs as well as the noble, to the welfare scrounge and the criminal, to the mentally unbalanced and to the barely functional illiterate.
We get degenerates like Frank and Kennedy because this is what the people admire and want to lead them. We get corrupt fools like Jefferson, Rangle and Dodd because people are satisfied with them and content to be ruled by people who sell their offices to anyone who has the price. They reelect seditious dolts like Kerry or Miller of California or that clod from Seattle because they feel that people like this will ensure the security of the nation and they can sleep safe in the knowledge. They MUST want this because the elect them over and over and over knowing what they are.
Overall, perhaps it is simply about name ID among the uninformed.