The revelations just keep on comin'. Illegal donations on both sides of the aisle, precious time spent on nebulous, partisan investigations, and the scandal of the week club.

Do we have a right to expect more? Of course. Will we get it? Probably not. Not for a while, anyway.

Personally, I lost all interest in politics with the 1996 election. The Republicans had a good chance to defeat Clinton, until they put up a washed-up old guy, that nobody cared about, with no charisma--just because it was "his turn."

How about that? They KNEW he would lose, but it was still more important to pay off a political debt. Never mind the millions of dollars that were wasted. I guess they didn't care about the loss in credibility, either.

Setting the Dole issue aside, ask yourself this simple question: Has politics solved more problems than it has caused, in the 20th century? Face it. The system has finally melted down.

Anyone who thinks that the Supreme Court hasn't been totally politicized has to get their head examined. On the recent death penalty case, which stopped the scheduled execution of Thomas M. Thompson, the Court divided along exact party lines, based upon the affiliation of the president who appointed the justice. Was this merely a coincidence?

Repairing this mess is not going to be easy. Politics is nothing more than a grand scheme for re-distributing money. There are lots of us dependent folks out there, who are willing recipients of these handouts.

Remember, three generations of Americans have been taught to rely on the Government for everything from trash collection to health care. It will probably take just as long to rebuild the notion of individual initiative. As soon as we learn to live with less government, that means less money, and therefore fewer political shenanigans.

Once upon a time, leadership actually meant something. So did personal integrity, and personal conduct. It was only 33 years ago that Nelson Rockfeller lost any chance at running for president because he was divorced!! If the moral standards then were too harsh, today's overly permissive climate is hardly the solution.

Until responsible civic action stops defining itself in terms of narrow tribal issues or meaningless philosophical debate, we Americans will lack decent leadership. To put it another way, we have precisely the Government that we deserve.