So I’m in the shower the other morning, and I hear some politician on some talk show and he’s breathlessly going on about some ethics violation.

“We’re gonna form a sub-committee and that sub-committee will report up to the main committee and then we’ll conduct our own investigation and blah-blah-blah.”

And all I can think is….”I’m paying for all of this foolishness.”

The NEXT thought that comes into my head is a quote from the Bible. (Now, I ain’t no Bible guy, but I do remember great quotes when I hear ‘em….)

“The idle mind is the Devil’s workshop.” This, I remember.

Here’s what goes on in government, so far as I can see.

Someone gets elected. Like all “newbies” (remember your first day at high school? Or college? Or work?), he doesn’t really know much more than where the restroom is located.

Time goes by and he/she slowly begins to learn his/her job. Some people learn faster than others, but given the proper determination and some minimal I.Q., eventually this newly elected person starts to become somewhat proficient at his job.

(Now that’d be a great idea for my radio show, “The American Entrepreneur”, right there. If the Texas legislature and those of about a dozen or more other states can meet for anywhere from 30-120 days a YEAR and still keep their respective states’ roads open and welfare offices crankin’ out checks, then what real levels of proficiency do we really NEED?)

Anyway, let’s say that this “minimum proficiency” kicks in at around the 1-2 year mark. This is really giving the benefit of the doubt, but so what? After all, these people really CAN’T be fired!

Now, the fun starts.

Because NOW, the guy learns that he/she can do his/her JOB in maybe 30-90 days a year! And yet, he/she is expected to be “on the job” (that’s another hallmark of our state government….they are FULL-TIME legislators, not (as is the case in yet another couple of dozen states) people who just show up in the summer for a few weeks or so) and so they must be SOMEWHERE on a full-time basis.

Now, we’ve all seen these types of people in our own careers. Sometimes, they are called “jailhouse lawyers”….sometimes they are called “gadflies”.

Whatever you call them, I say that they are both “idle”, and then also “Dangerous”!

And so they learn a few things:

1. First, they learn that this gig is pretty darned great. After all, their egos are constantly being stroked (by the media and whomever is willing to pay them an honorarium to speak – also known as a bribe), and they have this staff at their beck and call….ready to do their bidding whether or not it relates to state business!

2. And because theirs is such a cushy existence (let’s never forget their pay package….big salary, lotsa days “off”, paid car leases, free medical care from dollar ONE, and the WORLD’S greatest pension plan), they learn that it’s probably a good idea to never leave this job.

3. And so, my dear friends, they also learn “the tricks”. They learn that they must and CAN lie about what they’ve accomplished or, better still (because nobody really writes things down and checks back later) what they are going to accomplish! (See Ed Rendell and his recent “conversion” to term limits and a reduced legislature.) Remember – it is THEY, and not US, who have the TIME to finagle things to ensure their own re-election. This is precisely why the old Soviet Politburo had a lesser chance of re-election than does a Pennsylvania (or, as Swann might say, “Peh-sylvania” lawmaker.

It’s kind of like an inmate…they are thinking 24/7 about how to rig things so that they can keep their jobs (just a couple of techniques might include these incessant and ubiquitous newsletters that WE pay the production and mailing costs for, and which are no more than FLUFF pieces about what a tremendous JOB good old what’s his name is doing! (Yuck…I just got an e-mail from John Pippy – telling me that I had better not speed in a construction zone on 79.)

Things like diverting the same money that the same politicians (headed up by governor Cheese steak) TOOK from all of us shortly after his election (and thus furthest AWAY from HIS RE-election!) and then giving it back in the form of cardboard checks to key constituencies just before said election.

Anyway, and as this guy drones on in the background, all I can think about is, take away thee free time! And really – this is just about the ONLY weapon that we have, folks. WE must do what Joe Sobran says in his UNembargoed column of October 10th – we MUST un-elect ‘em all!

I got a bunch of e-mails as a result of last week’s show. Most of them were from intelligent and thoughtful people who “got” my point. (Which was, and to refresh your memory, precisely what I’m saying again this morning – take them out, take them ALL out!)

Sure, some good incumbents will get hurt. But let’s think this through…do we have even five % worth keeping? That’s about what I think. The rest of them are just collecting their huge checks and building towards their already HUGER pensions! Complete oblivious to the real problems of the state such as the ticking pension time bomb and the fact that NO ONE wants to start a business here!

Which is why I even spend my breath on politics….I, like any half-brain living in Pennsylvania knows, fully realize that our ONLY hope for turning the fate of this state around is to “entrepreneur” our way to prosperity.

But when you have a sign at the state line that says, “Welcome to Tax-Sylvania – Don’t even THINK about starting a business”, it is MIIIIIIGHTY difficult to pull a Lazarus (no…not THAT Lazarus, though we recently had someone on the radio show who really thinks that THAT Lazarus might yet be salvageable, a guy named Lucas Piatt.)

As all of you regular listeners know, I truly dislike just about ALL politicians. I’ve been saying this for eight-plus YEARS on this very same microphone.

Oh, I don’t dislike them as people. But it has been my observation since I really began OBSERVING (about the same time I cashed out) that most of them start out with truly honorable intentions. Much like that teenager that comes to your door to take your daughter on a date, these guys probably MEAN well at the beginning.

But then they GET to Harrisburg, and they encounter the grim reality of the place. They encounter guys like Jubelier and Perzel…guys like Habay and Brightbill. And they see the condos and second homes these guys have bought with YOUR hard-earned tax payments.

Then, they begin to realize that, and to GET along, they must GO along. That is, they have to sing the party tune…regardless of what their own conscience tells them to do.

Imagine how tough this is….voting against your own beliefs….Just so you can keep eating at the trough for another year, and then another.

Hey, this ain’t ME speaking….I have spoken with state AND federal congress people…this is THEM telling ME what happens “down there.”

You want the party support (read, “MONEY for your re-election”)? Well, then do exactly as we tell you and keep your mouth SHUT. Your committee chairs await. Just be patient.

Some genius named “Dan in Bethel Park” sent me an e-mail a couple of days ago calling me “Rush Jr.”, and babbling on about some conspiracy foisted upon us by the Conservative right. This deep thinker (I won’t even stoop to his level by letting you see his e-mail) actually still thinks that its about Republicans and Democrats (By the way, “Dan from Bethel Park”, I’m a registered Independent and have been my entire life. Oh, and I voted for Ed Rendell the first time around.)

Well, my misguided friend, this has NOTHING to do with party, and EVERYTHING to do with MONEY. Get that. Learn that. Repeat after me….”My pockets are being picked by BOTH sides of the aisle.”

Again, our only hope is to throw them ALL out. This is our best and ONLY chance of showing these career politicians (who in almost ALL cases, have never made a payroll, never carried a union card, and/or never lived in the REAL world) that everyone else must live in) that they may as well get out of the way and let a true CITIZEN-POLITICIAN do precisely what Jefferson and Madison and Adams and Monroe and Franklin, and a whole HOST of other TRUE Americans INTENDED them to do when they wrote the Constitution and the Federalist Papers and the Bill of Rights.

Which is virtually insure that there would be a consistent flow of “new blood” in our hallowed halls….and that therefore, no one or group of “career-ists” could POSSIBLY rig the game.

Fast Eddie now wants term limits (now that he personally cannot possibly be harmed by them, of course.) Well, Ed, we don’t NEED YOU to create this ten millionth statue because it’s already IN OUR POWER to “limit” any or all of these money/power mad human beings by simply grabbing the lever next to the person who is running against the incumbent.

Remember, folks…10%. That’s ALL we need. Just 10% And if we do this for, say three or four years in a row, guess what will happen? That’s RIGHT! The guys with “larceny in their hearts” will back off and the GOOD people (yes, they’re out there, you and I BOTH know that they are!) will start sniffing around…just like curious Robins in early spring.

I close this show every day with the statement, “You can do, and you can BE anything that you want to do or be in this world.” And I will NEVER stop believing this.

Heck, I’ve been bankrupt, divorced, run over by a truck, owed the IRS a half-million bucks, gone through a horrible gambling problem that cost about 200 people their paychecks, and I have 300-plus tumors in my liver, pancreas, and lymph glands.

And despite this, I’ve been able to build eleven businesses, start up an entrepreneurial studies program at Duquesne University, host a radio show, be intimately involved in working with underprivileged kids in VERY poor neighborhoods, and raise my own two children, now ages four and six.

So, it CAN be done. We CAN take back this state and we CAN stop the flow of our tax dollars from Harrisburg directly to friends and supporters of our governor and our legislators, regardless of their party affiliation.