Senators: 'Dollhouse' vs. Real Life

If you're watching Season 2 of 'Dollhouse' on Fox (and why wouldn't you be?), you know that there's a subplot involving an ambitious young U.S. Senator making it his personal mission to track down the Dollhouse and its parent company. He makes speeches about his goals, which are well-covered by news networks, and spends a lot of time at home going over corporate records with his smart yet sexy wife. That's the fictional version of a Senator.

Here's the real version of a U.S. Senator: a guy who doesn't bother to read legislation because the language is so arcane. And according to him, he's not alone. And he's from Delaware, which is less of a state than the Providence Plantations. Yes, I know most of you refer to it as Rhode Island, but screw that. Most of the state isn't an island, so I don't see why the island part has to come first.

I'm not sure whether the fictional version or the real version of the Senator miffs me more. The fictional one is too goody-two-shoes, unrealistic, and kind of annoying. Unless either he or his wife is an undercover Doll, in which case kudos, Joss Whedon. But, it's the sort of thing we'd like to envision in our public servants: actually caring about things other than fund-raising or his re-election.

On the other hand, I can understand not wanting to read legislative language. It sounds like crazy talk. But should the country that's the pinnacle of representative government allow itself to be drowned in nonsensical legalese that 99.999% of the population wouldn't understand? There's a reason that libertarians talk about trashing the tax code. You know this jerk is going to, at some point, brag about legislation he passed but doesn't understand. He'll leave that last part out of the stump speech.

Every now and then you read about a politician who's a real dynamo (like Bobby Jindal) and you think, hell yeah, this is the kind of cat we need in elected office. But mostly they're just loser a-holes like that jerk from Delaware.

Check out the rest of my blog! (And don't forget to watch 'Dollhouse' so we can have 'Dollhouse'-related chats the next time I see you. I don't like searching for conversational topics.)