who's your current favorite politician?
very curious about this. it doesn't have to be a presidential candidate or anything. has to be someone who is currently in office though. it can be state level. local district. whatever.
if i may be permitted. i have worked in politics for over 30 years, including time as a legislative director and/or press secretary for four members of the house and - via the u. s. commission on security and cooperation in europe - two senators. my credentials and my sins thereby confessed i offer the following - 1) senate majority leader mitch mcconnell. though not an ideas guy, he is a shrewd and effective parliamentary operator who knows the senate rules perhaps as well or better than any senate majority leader in recent memory. temperate and highly effective, he is a superb coalition builder with an exquisite sense of timing. 2) senator john neely kennedy. also not necessarily an ideas guy, though solidly grounded in his principles, kennedy has a rapier wit that he is not afraid to deploy against both sides. an acid tongue, he calls 'em as he sees 'em, and yet somehow manages to maintain - maybe it is the southern accent - an air of civility and reasonableness. 3) senator ben sasse. a former college president, sasse is one of the most intellectual and thoughtful senators. a man who takes ideas seriously and who understands the consequences of ideas. he is the soft-spoken - and frankly much underestimated - intellectual giant of the senate. 4) senator joe manchin. from west virginia, manchin is a temperate thinker and coalition builder. not given to inflammatory language, he seeks balance and compromise. 5) senator dianne feinstein - although lately i must admit her conduct has disappointed, generally feinstein sticks to her principles - which i, more often than not, do not share - but does so in modulated tones and thoughftully. no fire breather, she makes her case soberly and intellectually. (though to add, of late, some of her actions - particularly in recent kavanaugh supreme court confirmation - have not been at her historically high standard.) 6) former representative trey gowdy - actually, not an active politician any longer and is now a fox commentator, gowdy is a former criminal prosecutor and house member. he knows the law better then most know there own name and brings to his thinking a piercing intellect and consistency of principle like few others. he is sorely missed by me in the house. suffice to say, i could go on, but those figures stand out as my, "if you wake me in the middle of the night and ask me out of the blue, these pop to mind" answers. however, my experience in politics is that, contrary to also the populist contempt, most of those who go into politics are intelligent and civic minded, hard working and eager to make the country better and the people they serve happier. like any large group of human beings, they have their foibles, none are perfect and some are downright awful. however, overall, the american public gets better than it appreciates.
i think it may just be a public official/politician thing. democrats don't have to good of a record either i bet. i just think they were trying to be conservative in a roman catholic priest kind of way. there are a lot of people who may be aware of what private and public means. when you say private, this can be a sector that is owned by someone in particular. a private business is something that is controlled by certain the executive branch of our government is not chief legislator. laws are legislated by congress. the president's duty is to see to it that the laws are carried out. as commander in chief, the president acts as the non-military person in charge of all military operations and is the civilian head. our forefathers wanted a civilian to head the services because they feared that a military headed by a military person would wield too much power and would threaten the stability of the country if they ever tried to thwart the will of congress and the president.

chow!! in order to have the election process more democratic there are few pre-requisites like:a. one vote, one value: to choose/elect the representative everyone must have one note with equal value. this is to avoid any type of conflicting situation.b. regular election: there should be regular elections in every democratic country so that people have their choice at regular intervals.c. free and fair election: in order to ensure a fair chance to the people there should be a free and fair election in every democratic country.d. political competition: in order to have democratic election parties, candidates should be free to contest elections and should offer some real choice to the voters. lol! real soon! that's why we need a republican president. haven't you noticed that hunting and fishing is something that transcends politics and religion and everything? even vp cheney enjoys hunting, and bagging an occassional lawyer. people from all walks of life enjoy hunting and fishing, republicans, democrats, mormons, catholics, baptists, you name it. when you think about all the wars that are fought over religion or politics and the number of people who are killed in the name of religion or politics i sometimes think we should have a religion of hunting where we simply hunt and enjoy life and let everybody else do the the same. nothing to fight over or kill each other over. don't forget george w. bush's white house, with the allegations against his vp.

harry truman had lots of support, early in his career, from a kansas city mob-ring. kennedy may have owed his presidency to the daley political machine in chicago (whose remnants are attempting to besmirch our current president elect). lbj may have been in deep with various members of the military-industrial complex (though i don't think he had anything to do with jfk's assassination). 

but these are all rumours. the gop has a lot of 'splainin' to do, especially when they always take the moral high ground!

btw, andrew johnson was acquitted (as was clinton), and grant's scandal was not teapot dome (that was harding) but various kick-backs and short-changing of the indians. and he was a republican. the question was about democratic party abuses, and i'm sure there are plenty there to go around. just no so's you'd notice. i think you mean the line of succession. 

president george w. bush

1 vice president / president of the senate dick cheney 
2 speaker of the house of representatives nancy pelosi (god help us!)
3 president pro tempore of the senate robert byrd 
4 secretary of state condoleezza rice 
5 secretary of the treasury henry paulson 
6 secretary of defense robert gates 
7 attorney general michael mukasey 
8 secretary of the interior dirk kempthorne 
9 secretary of agriculture ed schafer 
— secretary of commerce carlos gutierrez (non-natural)† 
— secretary of labor elaine chao (non-natural)† 
10 secretary of health and human services michael leavitt 
11 secretary of housing and urban development alphonso jackson 
12 secretary of transportation mary peters 
13 secretary of energy samuel bodman 
14 secretary of education margaret spellings 
15 secretary of veterans affairs james peake 
16 secretary of homeland security michael chertoff


non-natural office holders like elaine chao i guess would be passed over for the person below them.

the simple chain of command on the other hand is all the president's secretaries all answer to him or her directly. the secretary's people answer to them and so on.

the vp plays no formal leadership role while the president is alive and conscious though clearly our current vp is a pretty important advisor. [http://www.senate.gov/legislative/LIS/ro...](http://www.senate.gov/legislative/LIS/roll_call_lists/roll_call_vote_cfm.cfm?congress=109&session=2&vote=00259#position)   

[http://clerk.house.gov/cgi-bin/vote.asp?...](http://clerk.house.gov/cgi-bin/vote.asp?year=2006&rollnumber=508) my best friend . 

he is honest , sincere , deep , open minded , caring , trustworthy , knowledgeable , intelligent , funny and most of all , wise . i would describe him as the most wonderful person i've ever known in my life. i would trust him with my life and he knows this .