Why do they run? It's the money, stupid

As another mean campaign unfolds, I get this question a lot: "Why would anyone put themselves through the abuse that comes with running for or serving in office?"

Well, for some anyway, I'd say, "It's the money, stupid."

Running for office has become a great way to make a fortune.

You no longer even have to leave office to cash in. A "60 Minutes" expose revealed that Congress has carved out a provision which allows its members to use insider information gathered in their official capacities to buy and sell their own stocks and bonds. Democrats AND Republicans are doing it.

Reforms are promised, but not yet passed.

For other Congress members the answer to the old question "When does life begin?" comes when they DO leave office. Even those driven from office under a cloud can wind up making millions as lobbyists.

Sarah Palin didn't even get to Washington, and became a multi-million dollar industry.

There is no end to the ways money can be made just campaigning. Candidates sometimes pay themselves salaries out of campaign funds. The Washington Post reports that Newt Gingrich charged his own campaign $42,000 to use his personal Rolodex of potential donors.

Critics said Herman Cain wasn't really running for president, just selling books and campaigning for a job on cable TV. Well, his campaign crashed, but it may have been a sound business plan. The New York Times reports that Fox may be interested in hiring him, and quotes a Fox official as saying, "He's interesting."

Well, aren't they all?

[magnumdr]

Everyone would like a job like this, where you wear a suit all day long and just argue, then get paid an enormous ammount of pay and benefits that continue until the day you die. After that your spouse gets the same bennies if she is still alive. All on the taxpayers dollars! Sign me up.

[Ron300]

Bob, you are so out of touch and one of the dumbest people on TV, it is not the money that brings people like Romney or the Kennedys to politics, it the POWER.
Have you ever wondered why no one listens to you?

[diabloggical]

Why was Bob Scheiffer to happy to announce the extension of his program? It's the money, stupid."

Not so cute when it is pointed at you is it Bob?

When are you going to stop pushing your liberal agenda through your program? Won't you please get to a place where you can truly work to inform and educate your viewers rather than try to belittle your guests to make your own points?

By the way, you don't do that very well anyway, very transparent, so it would behoove you to try to move to a higher plane if that is possible for you.

[FL_Son]

Another fact filled insight from CBS news. If you want to make a name for yourself either do something big or attack someone big. That makes you big. As this article points out, fame for any reason equals money. The number of actors, singers, and politicians who are famous for being famous continues to grow.
Accomplishments ? Not so much.

[noloyalisti]

They all know that the Top 1% has seized the government so that they get all the money from the 99%. So if you are one of the government stooges, you can join the Top 1% and be part of the problem.

[modonnel22]

"The Washington Post reports that Newt Gingrich charged his own campaign $42,000 to use his personal Rolodex of potential donors."

If Gingrich will steal from his own supporters, imagine what he'll do for the rest of us. This one really needs to be run up the flag pole. What a crook!

[sandiegopete]

The political system in the United States works this way: person gets elected to public office. Lobbyists give elected person money. Elected person gives lobbyists authority to write laws. Middle class gets nothing. Lobbyists and elected officials happy. Middle class, not so much.

[gep1955]

Why does Bob Scheiffer get paid millions working every day for CBS on a show that nobody watches, Its the money Stupid!

[sandiegopete]

Any snow on K Street yet?

[sandiegopete]

The great weakness of a republic is that it costs less to corrupt a few elected representatives that it costs to corrupt an entire population. That is why the Republicans continue to hammer the point over and over that the United States is not a democracy but a republic.

What is needed in the United States is democracy. Democracy now.

[involved_indi]

Bob doesn't have any room to talk. News sales.. and guess what, if there isn't a story then media creates one. Everybody that broadcasts the news and I mean EVERYBODY has an agenda and they arte all making plently off of it.