Tommy Denton

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Somehow, I managed to neglect one of the early acquisitions from our Book of the Month Club membership, "Burr," the 1973 historical novel by Gore Vidal about Aaron Burr, Revolutionary War hero, third vice president and duelist. Last week, more than 30 years later, I decided to take the volume from the shelf.

Vidal, relying on Burr's personal letters and other documents, reveals a frank and fascinating insight into the minds of the politically ambitious class.

Burr's uncharitable view of the political eminences of his day -- partisan allies as well as adversaries, himself studiously excluded -- suggests that suspicions of American voters' inclination to elect rogues, scoundrels, malefactors and other incompetents historically embarrassing to the republic is hardly a recent phenomenon.

As Mark Twain put it in his autobiography, "All Congresses and Parliaments have a kindly feeling for idiots, and a compassion for them, on account of personal experience and heredity."

That sentiment can extend to every level of government, of course, and needn't be confined merely to Congress, although that body has reaffirmed in recent years its well-deserved reputation for prevarication, myopia, self-dealing and general foolishness.

Take, for example, U.S. Rep. Virgil Goode of Virginia's 5th Congressional District. Goode already was a target of national curiosity because of his dubious collaboration with a notorious, plea-bargaining defense contractor when last December he issued a fatwa of sorts against the use of the Quran for the swearing-in ceremony of a newly elected Muslim member of Congress.

Not content to raise the collective public eyebrow at such a naked exhibition of religious prejudice, Goode went to the floor of the U.S. House last week to declare angrily, "I fear that radical Muslims who want to control the Middle East and ultimately the world would love to see 'In God We Trust' stricken from our money and replaced with 'In Muhammad We Trust.'"

Actually, Muslims of all persuasions trust in Allah, but at least Goode avoided an insulting charge of idolatry against all Islam by narrowing his frame of reference to radicals. But that's progress?

Most clearly before the Virginia public the last few weeks has been the latest installment of the General Assembly Follies, ostensibly wending its way toward adjournment Saturday.

That august contingent affords an especially fertile supply of mischief, absurdity, betrayal and amusement for those in the body politic who care to pay attention. Most of the shenanigans proceed apace, however, because most Virginians seem not to care, or the usual suspects would not keep getting re-elected.

Much has been made about the lawmakers' failure -- or refusal -- to arrive at an agreeable pass to achieve a 21st-century transportation plan for the commonwealth.

Unctuous defenders of constitutional rights and privileges of property owners rail against tyrannical encroachments on the liberty of smoking customers to poison the air of other customers.

Well-intentioned opponents of taxation sought to provide a statewide sales tax "holiday" as an incentive to Virginians preparing to fend off the violence of the hurricane season, even those residents of the interior flatlands, the exurbs of Northern Virginia and the gentlefolk in the hollows and highlands of Appalachia.

Among the more interesting feints in Richmond outside the General Assembly was the proposal by the Virginia State Bar to drop from its ethical guidelines the prohibition of lawmakers from being employed along with lobbyists in the state's large law firms.

For half a century, that proscription sought to ease the public mind about conflicts of interest, in which lawmakers would play both sides of the fence rather than limit themselves to the pedestrian mission of representing only the interests of the general public.

Supporters of the relaxation say the long-standing rule needlessly restricts the activities of law firms and lawmakers. They say lobbyists and sitting legislators can coexist at firms as long as they adhere to existing state laws governing conflicts of interest.

Just like the good old days. Trust us.

As if the public should trust a legislative body that allows -- nay, encourages by not limiting -- corporate political contributions to those same lawmakers, which only the terminally naïve would accept as having no effect on the outcome of legislation.

Mark Twain knew whereof he wrote.

Denton's column appears in the Sunday and Tuesday editions of The Roanoke Times.