Aaron Schock is one of those politicians few people ever hear of outside of the district he represents.
A lot more Americans know about him now, and for reasons he likely wishes didn’t exist.
The Illinois Republican congressman has made a name for himself by spending a lot of taxpayer money on private matters for himself and his staff.
The U.S. House Ethics Commission is investigating a complaint that Schock spent extravagantly while on an “official” trip to the United Kingdom. The expenses included stays at very expensive hotels, high-dollar meals and many other perks along the way. He allegedly used private aircraft in violation of House rules.
The latest is that Schock reportedly treated his staff to a $10,000-plus weekend in New York, with staffers performing next to zero official duties.
I know he isn’t the first politician to go for the gusto on the public dime. He won’t be the last, not by a long shot.
The fascination with this still-developing story, at least as far as I’m concerned, is how a no-name back-bench politicianĀ manages to place himself squarely in the public eye with apparently no outward sense of shame or embarrassment.
Is there a sense of entitlement at work here?