Washington has too many lawyers

At an out-of-state fundraiser U.S. Senate candidate Bruce Braley warned fellow trial lawyers of the prospect of the Senate Judiciary Committee chair falling into the hands of 'a farmer from Iowa who never went to law school,' should Democrats lose control of that chamber. That farmer would be Sen. Chuck Grassley. Instead, he admonished, they should help elect himself, a congressman and trial lawyer 'who's been literally fighting tort reform for 30 years.'

Tsk-tsk, how revealing. One of Washington's main problems is that it is larded-up with cookie-cutter Big Government lawyers, who apparently think the only way to confront the nation's challenges is to 'lawyer' their way through them as they proceed to go a-lawyering us all off the cliff. For evidence, look no further than the legalistic calamity that is Obamacare. Based on such performance, I venture that an Iowa farmer possesses more native common sense than the lot of them.

Washington has enough cookie-cutter Big Government lawyers. Let's have other occupations — yes, even a farmer or two. And maybe some of those other lawyers, the small government, constitutional republic ones, who pursue loftier goals than engorging the federal bloat-ocracy and feasting on the 'jackpot jury' gravy train.

Dale Fitzgibbons

Cedar Rapids