THE LAST WORD

As hard-working and industrious as Americans are, it’s no big secret

that a lot of U.S. workers spend a good amount of effort finding ways to

avoid working hard.

Lollygagging, an extra break snuck here and there, maybe even a solid

nap in the afternoon -- it worked for George Costanza on “Seinfeld,”

right? -- aren’t out of the realm of the imaginable during the 9 to 5

hours.

But cutting corners, skipping out of work a little early, these are

somehow the hard-earned rights of the blue-collar workers, the

lower-level drones who are bent and beaten down by the end of the day.

Our bosses, our leaders are supposed to rise up a bit higher, right?

They’re supposed to set the example the rest of us fail to live up to.

Sadly, it doesn’t always work that way. This summer, when a group of

Washington interns started a Capitol Hill campaign to get voting records

put up on member Web sites, they didn’t get much of a response, including

from Newport-Mesa’s two Congressmen, Reps. Christopher Cox (R-Newport

Beach) and Dana Rohrabacher (R-Huntington Beach).

The reason? It’s too much work to type it all in, apparently.

Instead, our representatives stress that the records are available via

the Library of Congress to those willing to search the Web site for them

-- a site Cox said ought to be revamped and made more user-friendly.

It’s there for those willing to do a little more work.

In other words, that figures.