Congre$$

This has been kicking around Facebook for a while; while according to this old article these numbers are greatly inflated, it still makes you wonder why so many of them will say or do so much that makes them look incredibly foolish and stupid just to stay in office, when the fact is that if every once in a while they did what they knew was right for their own constituents, they'd still be perfectly fine financially for the rest of their lives even if they got thrown out on their ear.  If you make the mistake of not insisting science doesn't exist and not stomping around in front of cameras shouting that Jesus wants you to destroy poor people with AK-47s because they're lazy, it's not as if you'll find yourself eating in a soup kitchen.  You'll be fine.  In fact, one would think being so financially secure would have the OPPOSITE effect, that Congressmen knowing that in a worst-case scenario they'd still be making more money than most Americans (to say nothing of speaker fee/sitting on boards/most of them are wealthy already etc) would make them MORE willing to risk being voted out while doing what they honestly thought was the right thing to do; you'd think this would free them up to be more concerned with actual results than anything else.  And yet here we are.  Interesting.