Kerry's Parking Tickets

Reports that John Kerry used campaign funds to pay for parking tickets and for a night of baseball at Fenway park, are not really shocking to me.

Tickets for Baseball & Parking Boston Style

The whole recently hot issue revolving around Delay and other elected officials having expenses paid by lobbyists and the Kerry story of using campaign funds for questionable “campaigning” expenses is a bottomless pit that has been going on for a long time. All government officials whether Republican or Democrat, elected or employed government workers, federal, state or local level, have been in this trough for a long time.

In my view the culture of government is that these types of expense paid items are viewed as a right, and the main thing they are concerned with is whether they can expense them out in a fashion that skirts the intent of the law. Influence and audience is bought at every level of government and by all parties. It has become part of our political process, and it would take a huge initiative to weed it out of the culture. Probably impossible I’d say to truly reform that dynamic of the political process.