The remarkable thing about the ubiquitous corruption of American politicians is not that they can be bought, but how cheaply you can buy them

19 Century politicians would have blushed in shame if they were

caught stuffing their pockets with as little as California politicos will

take to be bought by Mitt Romney

So Mitt Romney wants to tear down a house in La Jolla, California, to build a bigger, fancier home. You know, the kind of a house a man who has an elevator for his automobiles might build while thumbing his nose at the world. The kind that says to everybody else, "in your-face-you-worthless-moocher." 

Small problem: he needs zoning regulations, permits, that sort of annoying stuff. City officials don’t like to give them to out-of-character palaces like the one Mitt has in mind. They mess up the neighborhood for everybody else.

But that’s no problem for Mitt Romney. He just buys the politicians. As reported by Matt Potter in the San Diego Reader:

The saga started almost four years ago when, as first noted here in December 2010, the ex–Massachusetts governor and wife Ann paid $1000 to La Jolla’s Island Architects to lobby city hall for approval of a coastal development permit at the exclusive oceanfront address, according to a disclosure form filed by Island’s Tony Crisafi that November 1. 

In addition, La Jolla-based lobbyist Matthew Peterson, a ubiquitous presence at both planning meetings and political fundraisers, has so far received at least $61,025 to grease the skids for the mansion with local politicos, lobbyist disclosure filings say. 

Campaign disclosure records show that Peterson and members of his firm, Peterson and Price, have given a total of $29,098 to city candidates since 2006, including $2000 to Democrat Bob Filner's mayoral bid and $1250 to the GOP Lincoln Club. 

Republican current mayor Kevin Faulconer's 2014 campaign got the most: $4950.

That’s right folks. Evidently not a single politician needed as much as $5,000 to sell out. Even the local Republican political club was bought for a piffling $1,250. 

You oldsters who thought the day of the $2 whore ended in 1902 can have another think, especially when the whore is a politician. Or am I verging on redundancy here?