Mack,
You are right. The ideological part of me wants to believe that our elected officials are there to do the peoples business, but I'm afraid most are more concerned with feathering their own nests. The temptations from the "special interest groups" are too lucrative for many of our so-called leaders to pass up. Whatever happened to high standards and integrity?
By the way, my definition of "special interest groups" does not include those that are in place to be the watchdogs of our constitutional rights, specifically the NRA and others like them. It burns my butt that the NRA gets lumped in with those groups who are looking to either find ways around the laws for their groups (getting around the IRS is an obvious exception

) or to carve out some ridiculous set of "superior rights" for some disenfranchised minority.
Sorry for the rant. Happy Independence Day!!!