Every once in a while, you come across a monument of what is most politely called 'staggeringly self-serving bullcrap' so immense, so titanic, so heroically towering over the landscape of everyday political blarney, that it deserves special mention.

As is the case with the following statement, made by Senator Dale Volker, on member items, as quoted by The New York Times:

But to Dale M. Volker, a Republican state senator from western New York, member items are nothing less than the Legislature’s purest expression of self-government and a bulwark against power-grubbing governors through the ages. It is a sentiment echoed by other lawmakers, who in interviews offered spirited defenses of such spending.

“I personally believe it is the biggest democratization of the Legislature in all the years that I’ve been there,” Mr. Volker, a 32-year veteran of the Senate, said in an interview. “I contend that the reason we cannot get rid of member items is that it would reduce the power of democracy in the Legislature. The problem we have is, a lot of our people truly believe in democracy.”

I kid you not – this is for real, and not something made up to embarrass the other side. You can't make this stuff up. The richest, most shining mother lode of ridicule can't compete with what Joe Bruno's aged helpers actually say.

It's just too bad, cough, that the FBI, cough, and law enforcement generally, cough, takes such a dim view of, cough cough, Albany-style "democracy".