I haven’t taken much interest in the growing story about the possibility that Rep. Joe Sestak (D‑PA) was offered a job to entice him out of the primary race against incumbent senator Arlen Specter. If true, this apparently is illegal.

But does anyone think horse-trading like this does not happen in politics all the time? Perhaps someone was gauche enough to name the price of the horse, and perhaps someone didn’t know enough to keep his mouth shut about it. But it’s pretty much a law of physics that an entrenched group of politicians at a remote level of government is going to divvy up the emoluments the public has ceded to them. A law to the contrary may aspire to some ideal of good government, but its effect is only to hide what is going on.

Only if you pretend that politicians are selfless do you find horse-trading around the Pennsylvania Senate race unusual.