While political junkies and members of the public who can’t change the channels fast enough have been watching the endless campaign in New Hampshire and Iowa, those friendly folks back in Washington are spreading the love just so you won’t forget them come election time.  Chuck Rangel got a Center for Public Service named after him at CCNY.  Tom Harkin is building schools and healthy life styles in Iowa, where you’d think they were already healthy enough.  Even Tom Daschle is gone but not forgotten — he gets a Center for Public Service too, this one at South Dakota State University. 

The fun doesn’t end there.  The First Ladies get a library and museum, in Ohio, sponsored by Congressman Regula.  The complex was founded by his wife and is run by his daughter.  That may be the single most egregious example of dipping into the public purse for personal benefit, but the Silliest Idea Award goes to the Woodstock Museum.  Yes, that Woodstock — what was once the essence of counter-cultural excess is now a government-funded museum.  Is that irony?  Or just inanity?   

The Most Futile Idea Award goes to Arlen Specter, who’s wrung almost $1 million from the Feds for abstinence education programs in Pennsylvania. 

It’s amazing that our ‘lawmakers’ imagine that no one will notice in this era of instant communications.  I guess the truth is that even when you threaten them with ridicule and worse, they can’t resist spending public money on private gratification.  Rangel’s comment was telling.  In response to a fellow lawmaker’s scolding, a Republican who said Rangel shouldn’t be building ‘monuments to himself’, Rangel said, ‘I would have a problem if you did it, because I don’t think that you’ve been around long enough to inspire a building like this.’ 

That word ‘inspire’ says it all.  It contains an ocean of ego and self-satisfaction.  In his own mind, Rangel is a monument.  Too many people have said ‘yes sir!’ to him for too long. 

There may be no way to stop wasteful government spending.  There’s too much fun and love — self-love — wrapped up in it.