To the editor:

While we all wallow in the machinations of the presidential election, I wonder how many among us took the time to read the headlined article “Law makers got richer in 2007 by 13 percent” which appeared in a local newspaper? The whole country, I would hope.

However, the truth be told, that is very doubtful, and any idea that we are all represented in any way by “The Butcher, the Baker or the Candlestick Maker” is beyond laughability.

The millionaires, and the billionaires certainly hold sway, and if you ain’t got the dough, forget about getting into the leadership race.

Can you imagine, the 535 members of Congress who earn average annual salaries of $169,000 and receive cost-of-living pay increases, had a total net worth of $3.7 billion last year? My oh my, no paupers among this bunch.

McCain with $28.5 million and Obama with $4.7 million are amongst the poorest. Senator John Kerry got himself $336 million, Kennedy $104 million and Herb Kohl, another Democratic senator from Wisconsin, possessed $241.5 million.

Overall, two of every three senators are millionaires, and 30 percent of the Congress belong to that exclusive club.

Democrats or Republicans, they all pretty much get a taste of all that honey sucking at the public trough.

These are the birds that are going to fix our Social Security and bind up all our economic wounds. Pardon me if I can’t stop laughing.

Whatever, like an another old-timer like myself, say to one another “We’ve stayed too long at the fair.” Its only going to take one long purge of the entire machinery of government to get rid of the existing stench.

God save us all and our beloved country.

Joseph Curran Sr.

Cape Coral