A wonderfully written point (especially the second and third paragraphs), by a guy named Harvey at a blog called Bad Example. Found it at Boots and Sabers, had to post it myself.

YOU CAN KEEP THE MONEY IN POLITICS, JUST GET THE POLITICS THE HELL OUT OF MY LIFE

Ogre of Ogre's Politics & Views contemplates whether there's a difference between a campaign contribution and a bribe, and how this relates to recent 'scandals' about bloggers taking money from politicians.

As far as I'm concerned, the problem - as far as campaign contributions/bribes - isn't that people are using money to buy influence. That's human nature. The problem is that government has so many things that it has granted itself the power to have influence over.

The problem is socialism - government's filthy paw digging around in every aspect of our lives. With a proper, constitutionally-restricted government, there wouldn't be any influence to BUY, and all this campaign-finance hoo-hah would be irrelevant.

As for bloggers taking money, the decision to accept cash for advocacy is a matter of integrity and protecting (or not) one's reputation regarding that integrity.

If your reputation matters, you'll either not take the money, or take it and admit up front that you did, and people can judge you accordingly.