Just when you are thinking that John Adams is a crusty old republican who does not translate well into a modern idiom, he tantalizes you with this tasty morsel on lawgivers: "One useless man is a tragedy. Two are a law firm. More are a congress." 

When Jefferson retired from public service, he wrote to a friend, "I have the consolation of having added nothing to my private fortune during my public service, and of retiring with hands clean as they are empty," a badge of honor that those whose campaign coffers were stuffed with contributions from the financiers they have bailed out will never be able to wear.

The Founders, Fannie, Freddie and the Congress