Nepotism in Politics?

Nepotism is favoritism shown or patronage granted to relatives, as in business or in today's news, politics.

I'm not sure that nepotism is wrong, especially if the relative is paid equal to or less than others doing similar jobs. For instance, if the child of a politician is paid the same amount as another paid volunteer, who is not a relative, what is the problem? I would be willing to be that most politicians pay their relatives less than they would pay someone they hired outside the family. Yes, there are times when a politician abuses the system, that's what you need to bring into the light. Another reason people hire their spouses and kids is because they can trust them and depend on them in a way you can't depend on employees you hire "off the street".

I was watching FoxNews this evening. Something like 39 members of Congress have hired relatives. Where is the outrage about Barbara Boxer hiring her son? Or Joe Lieberman hiring his son and daughter? But let Tom DeLay hire his wife or Dick Cheney's daughter run his campaign and it's the worst scandal that ever was. Here and here are lists of politicians and what their family members were paid. Believe me, there's more to this than just nepotism.

This thing about nepotism is that the relatives of the politician really have to be careful that they don't do something that can hurt the politician or make him look bad. Kofi and Kojo Anan illustrate this point. Kofi should have kept his boy in line, but didn't. Not gonna speculate on why, but he obviously didn't. Kojo made some bad choices and is paying for it.

My first job was working for my mother. She was an office manager and her boss asked if I could work vacation relief during my summer vacation from school. She really didn't want me working there. Not because she didn't think I would do a good job, but because she didn't want to look as if she was hiring her family. My brother was already working there and a few years later, his wife would work part-time. Her boss said that he didn't care what anyone else thought. He knew that we would be good employees and he would hire as many of us as he could. By that time, he pretty much had hired us all. My dad even pitched in occasionally.

How about taking trips paid for by lobbyists? I'd say that's more worrisome than hiring relatives. Here's a story from my own state of Florida. See if you would vote for her again.