Doug Miller wrote:

Another option, I suppose, would be to raise the salaries of the President,
VP, House, and Senate to seven or eight figures -- that way, we might
attract candidates who are motivated by money rather than power. Not that
there's anything particularly good about that... but given the choice
between a man who simply seeks money, and a man who is motivated by the
desire to gain and hold power over other men, I'll pick the greedy man every
time.

When I was growing up in Kentucky ("The politics are the dammednest") the
saying was that given the choice between an idealist and a crook, pick the
crook. He could only steal so much and an idealist would try to run your
life :-).

--
It's turtles, all the way down