It’s been a bad couple of weeks for New York Republican Congressman Vito Fossella.  First, he gets busted for drunk driving.  Then it turns out he’s got some kid with an Air Force Colonel.  Now he’s under investigation for travel expenses with his second family. 

I’ve been hankering to write this post, but more stuff keeps coming out about poor Vito.  Of course, now he has announced that he won’t be running for re-election.  But he’s staying in the job until the end of his term.  For now. 

This post really isn’t about Fossella.  He’s just the flavor of the week.  It’s about the people who run for elected office.  It’s about the people who make the laws that put other people in jail.  It’s about the people who make the decisions to spend the money for which we are taxed.  It’s about all of them.  And it’s about us, because we never seem to learn.

There is no doubt some are dedicated public servants.  But there are many, maybe even most, who are dedicated to their own little power trip.  These are the ones who are above the law.  These are the ones who listen to no one.  These are the ones who became taller, smarter and better looking the second they were first elected.  They live in a fantasy world of their own glory and importance to compensate for . . . something.

Some say that Vito was charging headlong into self-destruction, as if childhood neurotic self-esteem issues drove him to tragedy.  I doubt it.  He was living large.  He was a young, up-and-comer in the Republican Party.  But talking family values is different than living them.  He must love family values; He even had 2 families.  I guess New Yorkers have polygamy issues closer to home than I thought.

It’s hard to take people seriously these days when they can spout one bit of pap and live another.  Norm just posted  about Fieger, the megalomaniac, who took the stand in his own defense.  This was the defense’s greatest fear and the prosecution’s greatest wish.  And the idea that Fieger would “win” over the jury with his overwhelming important presence was likely impossible to suppress, even for Gerry Spence. So Norm noted:

Political scientist Harold Lasswell wrote a book in the 1930s called Psychopathology and Politics. He applied Freud’s theories of personality development to the study of political leaders, asking, in effect, why would anyone want to be a politician. Mind you, this was before mass communication made walking sound bytes out of people.

Lasswell’s answer was that politician had extraordinary psychological needs, in effect saying that normal people wouldn’t seek office. I suspect the same is true of trial lawyers. Good ones are driven by deep needs to the stage of trial. Nothing else would lead a person to forgo sleep, ease and often peace of mind.

You see, we are reinventing the wheel when we try to understand why the Vito Fossella’s of the world behave as they do.  Or the Eliot Spitzers.  There are way too many names to list, and they aren’t from any particular side of the aisle.  But they crave the attention, the admiration, the adoration that comes with the job.  They become the pop stars they could never be otherwise.

How many others in Congress knew about Vito’s double life?  How many knew that Larry Craig had a wide stance?  Anybody remember Wilbur Mills?  Like I said, it’s a long list.  But even those who keep themselves under control probably know a lot of ugly stuff about the ones who don’t.  And they aren’t talking either.  Maybe their too busy coming up with new crimes for us?  Maybe they have to give an interview with an American flag pin on their lapel about why we need to stay the course. 

What I learn from Vito’s mess is that there are just too many like him.  Scratch a pompous politician and you find another Vito Fossella.  We treat them like they are “important” people, but they behave like everyone else.  They
are likely not the sort of people you would want to have over your house for dinner.  We not only give them an awful lot of power, but an awful lot of deference.  Are elected officials supposed to be treated like rock stars, or are they supposed to be public servants.  If the latter, why do we keep fawning over them, filling their desperate egos with the belief that they really are brilliant and wonderful?

Lasswell teaches us that this is nothing new.  The ego-needs that drive people toward these positions suggest that anyone who runs for office is likely the sort of person we don’t want there.  But no normal person would seek election, leaving us stuck with a government full of Vito Fossellas.  Is the only difference between Vito and the rest of Congress that he got caught? 

How do we accept and justify the suffering done in the name of government when it seems that it’s all a big joke, with Representatives and Senators having a grand time doing whatever suits their fancy while the rest of us suffer their decisions.  There are just too many scandals.   

Vito, you got nailed for being one of the gang.  Bummer.  If you had one less drink that night, you would have been shoo-in for re-election, and likely been eyed for bigger and better things. If you had kept your nose just a little cleaner, no one would have known.  You would have looked just like everyone else in Congress.

Maybe we need to start remembering this for ourselves.  These aren’t rock stars.  Just people with enough psychological problems that they would run for office.  They need to be watched closely.