[nonhuman]

This was recently posted in Gary Nolan's campaign blog:

For the past two months, Senator Kerry has been AWOL – Absent Without Leave – from his responsibilities as a sitting Senator. For the past two months, he’s been campaigning full-time for President – while drawing full-time pay from the taxpayers. President Bush is also campaigning for reelection on the taxpayers’ dime.

Meanwhile, candidates like me who actually work for a living can’t draw salary for not working while campaigning full-time. Under our crazy campaign finance laws, that would be considered an illegal contribution, a way of getting around contribution limits.

In my case, there’s an added wrinkle. If I had continued broadcasting my radio show while running for President, the FCC would have required every station carrying my show to offer equal time to every other candidate for President.

And this fall, it will get even worse. My campaign team and I will have to devote much of our time and energy to raising money, with contributions limited to just $2000 per person. Meanwhile, Bush and Kerry get around $70 million each from the taxpayers to run their campaigns, while continuing to draw full-time pay from the taxpayers for at best part-time work.

Politicians shouldn’t be paid for not working, and they shouldn’t campaign for office at taxpayer expense. As a small step toward fairer elections, let’s dock Bush & Kerry’s pay for every day they’re out campaigning.

And while I’m engaged in wishful thinking, why don’t we take that $140 million in political welfare and use it to pay down the national debt instead. After all, Bush and Kerry helped get us into this mess in the first place.

He brings up a very good point about incumbent politicians running their campaigns on the tax-payer's dime. Opinions?