Pittsburgh Tribune-Review Interviews Thomas DiLorenzo

Bill Steigerwald of the Pittsburgh Tribune-Review recently interviewed Thomas DiLorenzo. In the interview DiLorenzo rates Abraham Lincoln as the worst president ever and relates the corruption of Illinois Governor Blagojevich to similar tactics Lincoln used.

One of his more interesting quotes was in regards to the 17th Amendment which offered a perspective I had not yet thought about:

That's why, for example, the Framers originally had it set up so that U.S. senators were appointed by state legislatures. The reason for that is they didn't want the senator from Pennsylvania to go to Washington, D.C., and gather money from people in New York and elsewhere -- lobbyists and special interests -- and be beholding to those people. They wanted to be sure that when they went off to the nation's capital, that the senators would serve the people in their home state. They set it up so they could fire the U.S. senator on the spot if he didn't do what they wanted. It happened on numerous occasions. But once we had the 17th Amendment to the Constitution, which was in 1913, for the direct election, now the senator from Pennsylvania can go to California and New York and Texas and raise money for his or her re-election campaign and he can vote against the interests of the people of Pennsylvania in many instances and still get re-elected because he has got so much money for his campaign.