Remember when Martha Stewart went to jail for insider trading?  How about all the CEOs and executives at Enron for cooking the books?  Or when Speaker of the House Foley got tripped up by that book deal that forced his resignation?  Why aren't the rules the same for everyone?

Sens. Dodd and Conrad got some pretty sweet deals through Countrywide.  Through internal Countrywide documents, we now know they both knew they were getting deals.  The Senate is investigating those deals and the truth is coming out, despite denials from Dodd and Conrad.  Yet, they keep their jobs.  At least Dodd is trailing by 9 points behind the presumptive GOP candidate in Rhode Island.

Call me old fashioned, call me what you will, but I tend to hold our elected officials to a higher standard.  They abused their status, they got caught, and they should now pay the piper. 

This kind of scandal and lack of punishment (so far) is a reason why people say all politicians are corrupt or evil or fill in the blank.  The sad part is that nothing will probably happen to Dodd, let alone Conrad.  Dodd will hopefully lose re-election in 2010, but despite the insider deals, will get to keep his Congressional retirement.  Must be nice.