Is it ethical for politicians to take no work jobs at companies they helped after they leave office?

[yurbud]

One of the things Blagovich wanted as payment for Obama's senate seat was a no-work board member job for his wife. What struck me about that was how little different that is from what most pols do with a wink and a nod instead of a blatant demand as Blagovich did.

When some names came up for possible Obama cabinet seats, I googled the people to see what they were doing, and some supposedly respected elder statesmen were serving on the boards of companies like Exxon & Chevron. After Dick Cheney's tenure, that hardly inspires me that those guys would have looked out for the public interest instead of their former employer's.

When Bush was running for president, I remember reading a story about a family friend who served on a board with Baby Bush, and they finally told him to stop coming to meetings, he was so useless. They just had him on as a favor to his dad. A favor like that probably had a price tag either before or after that board babysat the Tard King.

What I want to know is totally apart from whether it is legal, do you think it is ethically and morally right for our elected representatives to go through that revolving door to Wall Street and corporate boards?

Is Blagovich's demand worse than what most do, different only in degree, or what?