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[Gene GeRue <genegerue AT ruralize.com>]

> > I sometimes wonder if one of the pre-req's for being a politician  
> > is putting
> > common sense in cold storage.
>
> No, they are instead liberal arts majors with no understanding of  
> science.

Congress was traditionally dominated by those who have served time in  
the legal profession. In 1993, 45% of Congressmen were lawyers by  
profession. Within America, law has always been a well rewarded  
profession from a financial point of view and a law background was  
deemed important to someone who wished to be a member of America’s  
legislative body. However, in the 105th Congress, the total number of  
lawyers declined to 225 and in the House of Representatives former  
lawyers were outnumbered by former businessmen and bankers for the  
first time. 33 senators were also from a business background.
the other main occupational groups are public service (a total of 126  
in Congress ), education (87 in Congress), farmers (30 in Congress),  
real estate (28 in Congress) and journalists (21 in Congress). There  
is a noticeable lack of former manual workers in Congress or people  
with a trade union background. Many Representatives and Senators are  
very wealthy : over 25% of Congress are millionaires. This fact needs  
to be linked with the financing of elections which are practically  
out of the reach of most people who might want to get involved in  
politics.

http://www.historylearningsite.co.uk/recruit.htm