( CNN ) -- Congratulations , members of Congress : A new poll finds that you 're not viewed as having the lowest ethical standards of any profession in the country ! You edged out car salesman for that honor . Of course , you 're viewed as the second worst profession in terms of honesty and ethics , but hey , savor this moment -- you 've earned it . At least these are the findings of a Gallup poll released this week that asked people to rate `` the honesty and ethical standards of people '' in different professions . Besides Congress and car salesmen , also bringing up the rear in this poll are the usual suspects , among them lawyers , stockbrokers and bankers . Topping the list of professions we find most ethical were nurses , followed by pharmacists and doctors . Dentists came in lower , but I doubt that dentists are truly less honorable than M.D.s ; it 's just that dentists seem to enjoy causing us so much pain that this may be our way of paying them back . In reviewing the poll results , I am left with a few burning questions . First , how can car salesmen be viewed as less trustworthy than Congress ? It was n't the guys at the local Ford or Chrysler dealership who caused our government to lose its AAA credit rating . And they are n't the ones who ca n't agree on a budget deal while we collectively stare into the abyss of the `` fiscal cliff . '' In fact , I have no doubt that a group of car salesmen could iron out a deal on the budget quicker than our recalcitrant Congress -- plus get us all to buy some undercoating for our cars to boot . But here are my bigger questions about this poll . Do we really care about the ethics of the people in these professions ? Does it truly matter to us whether they are honest ? If we actually did care about the moral fitness of Congress , why would we re-elect them to the tune of 91 % in 2012 ? If honesty truly meant something to us , would n't we have voted out at least half of them ? Even 25 % ? But no , when given a chance last month to vote out Congress , we sent home only 9 % of those up for re-election . And let 's look at lawyers , a profession consistently viewed as ethically challenged . Before I saw the light and became a comedian , I was a practicing attorney for about six years . I can tell you firsthand that my clients never , ever asked me about ethics . What did my clients always ask me about ? How do we win -- be it a lawsuit or negotiations . ( Followed by : How much is this going to cost me ? ) I even had clients tell me , in essence : I do n't care what you have to do to win this case ; win it , or I will find a lawyer who will . It was up to me to rein in my clients who wanted to go beyond what was ethically permissible . Let 's consider stockbrokers , also a profession that wallows in the pit of perceived low ethics . If your stockbroker had a tip for you that was not illegal but was ethically ambiguous , would you execute the trade based on that info if it could make you a nice payday ? Or what about your accountant ? Would you support her recommendation to take a `` questionable '' deduction that would save you a nice chunk of money ? Honestly , have you ever heard someone brag that their lawyer , accountant or financial planner was the most ethical , honest person they ever met ? Unlikely . But I bet you heard people say things like `` My accountant is amazing at finding loopholes , '' `` my broker gets me great returns on my money every year '' or `` my lawyer is a killer . '' We want the meat , but we do n't want to know how the calf is forced to live in a crate or how the lobster is boiled alive . We want tender veal , tasty seafood , lawyers who win cases and brokers who make us money . We want results . But when a poll comes around about ethics , we are all of a sudden holier than thou . We scoff at others ' apparent moral bankruptcy . We joke about their lack of ethics . We convince ourselves that we are ethically superior to them . Yet in the very same instance , we re-elect them to Congress . We retain them to represent us in legal proceedings . We hire them to manage our money . And when they do a good job , we recommend them to friends . So here are my real questions about this poll : Who really are the unethical ones here ? Who truly deserves to be on the bottom of the list of honest people ? Them or us ? The opinions expressed in this commentary are solely those of Dean Obeidallah .
A Gallup poll says Congress has the second-lowest ethical standards of any profession . Dean Obeidallah : If we care about ethics , why did we re-elect 91 % of Congress in 2012 ? No one brags that his or her lawyer or accountant is the most ethical , honest person , he says . Comment: