A higher expectation applies with a visit to the physician. If the physician is not completely sure of how to treat the malady afflicting the patient, we can rightfully expect him to put in some study time before whipping out the prescription pad and writing a powerful medication that could do more harm than good.

We expect the same diligence from those practicing law. Not only do we have a legal expectation that the attorney we hire has studied and has a working knowledge of all laws on the books, but also that the attorney will pay special attention to reviewing those laws pertaining to the problem at hand.

In order to represent a client properly, an attorney must not only know and understand every law, rule and regulation pertaining to the client’s instant problem, but to effectively represent all rights of the client the lawyer must also know the complete history of case law.

That is all part of the professional responsibility expected from any attorney who is properly representing or defending a client.

Carrying that thought one step further, we should have even greater expectation of due diligence by those we allow to draft our laws, rules and regulations. New laws can affect thousands, or even millions, of Americans around the country. Negligence by lawmakers could be very detrimental to the well being of the people.

It is extremely important, then, that lawmakers take great care in drafting any new law. The proposed law must fit in that narrow group of powers allowed the federal government by the Constitution and also not impact on any of the God given, Constitutionally protected rights and liberties the federal government is tasked by our Constitution to protect.

Done properly, that could be a monumental task that requires hours of forethought and study. Even the lowest expectation of professional due diligence would require that every lawmaker voting on a new bill also take the time necessary to study the bill completely and have a very good understanding of exactly how each aspect of the proposed law would affect different segments of American society. They are, after all, very well paid to perform this duty as professionals.

All lawmakers in the United States take the same Oath of Office: "I, (name), do solemnly swear (or affirm) that I will support and defend the Constitution of the United States against all enemies, foreign and domestic; that I will bear true faith and allegiance to the same; that I take this obligation freely, without any mental reservation or purpose of evasion; and that I will well and faithfully discharge the duties of the office on which I am about to enter. So help me God."

All legislators promise to conduct business in such a way that they "support and defend the Constitution," will always "bear true faith and allegiance to the same" and will "faithfully discharge the duties of the office" they hold. Any deviation from that is, then, negligence.

Which means, there are at least 240 Members of the House who are professionally negligent. That is, they voted to approve the campaign finance reform bill two weeks ago without first reading it. They could not read it because it was being changed on the fly, during floor debate. At the time of the final vote, there were no copies available to be read.

Clearly, these 240 Representatives were negligent. They didn’t even care enough about their work to read the bill before voting on it.

They also violated their oath of office another way. By voting for that atrocious bill, they also voted to unconstitutionally limit the political speech of the people.

The Senate didn’t do any better. Social-Democratic honcho, Senator Tom Daschle, brought the bill up for passage by a "unanimous consent" vote the next day. That’s a Senate trick that allows them to pass bills even though only a couple Senators have bothered to show up for work. As long as no one on the floor objects, the bill passes.

Which means, not only did Daschle not want Senators to read and study the new bill, he did not even want to trouble the geriatric set with the need of knowing that the bill was on the Senate floor. This was truly the height of negligence and a complete lack of professional responsibility.

In this case, Senator McConnell (R-KY) put a halt to Daschle’s foolishness.

Yet, we allow this negligence in government and keep returning these fools to office. They would be removed from any other profession and then punished. But, apparently no professional standards are applicable to Congress.