What's wrong with them? They need to pander to us, that's what. People, this is our fault. We elect these people. And we have some ridiculous standards by which we elect them. We want to know all about their sex lives. We want them to take a bunch of ridiculous moralistic positions, and we expect them to display the "politically correct" opinions and engage in "politically correct" behavior at all times. Whether it's feigning outrage at a flag burning, pretending to go to church, or uttering meaningless equivocal formulas every time some controversial issue comes up, they do it for one reason--because we the stupid voters expect them to.
A politician ought to be able to tell his or her constituency that it's more important to do what's right than to kiss their ill-informed asses. There's not one member of Congress (well, maybe one: Michele Bachmann) who doesn't know that it would be a complete disaster if they actually default on the national debt. They can't be that ill-informed. They need to stop posturing and stop trying to use the risk of an international economic meltdown to get goodies for their favored constituencies.
And the next time some Anthony Wiener tweets pictures of his penis to sixty or seventy thousand of his closest friends, the next time some Larry Craig gets caught soliciting a male prostitute, the next time some John Ensign gets caught breaking whatever the hell commandment it is that proscribes adultery*, or the next time some politician ends up with his schlong in the wrong place, we the idiot voters need to ask ourselves why we really give a damn. I want the next politician who is accused of sexual misconduct to tell us that it's none of our business, he (or she) has more important things to do--like avoid an economic meltdown.
Look, we do dozens of things that most if not all elected officials know are bad ideas. We do them because they're popular with an ill-informed public. The drug war, for instance. DUMB IDEA. It doesn't work. They all know that. Trying to build democratic regimes in the Middle East. Forget about it. Getting involved in this Libya mess when we're already up to our ass in alligators in Iraq and Afghanistan. Why did we do this? I think Obama did it because the Republicans were questioning his manhood. Of course ten seconds after he did it they whined that it was illegal. But the real reason Obama did it is because of all the whining about what a bastard Moamar Quadaffy [I've got no idea how to spell it, neither apparently does anyone else, and I'm not looking it up. This is a rant. You want reasoned discourse, look somewhere else] is. As if we just noticed that Quadaffy is a bastard.
It's our fault, people. We need to decide that there are better qualifications for public office than expertise in ass-kissery.
*depending on whether he's Catholic or Protestant, because they number the commandments differently.