It’s an age-old story: Person gets elected, uses the office to get a cushy job in the NGO sector, then uses their government position to steer money to their non-government employer. El Somnambulo has been pounding the table about this for years, yet professional news organizations have for the most part ignored it.
I find that particularly infuriating because politicians lining their own pockets is an issue that should transcend political philosophies and party lines, and too many people enter politics because it offers them the opportunity to do it. If the media paid it more attention it might happen less often.
“Nice Work If You Can Get It” was one of nine tunes George and Ira Gershwin wrote for the 1937 film “Damsel in Distress,” where Fred Astaire sang it with backing from the Stafford Sisters. Jo Stafford was responsible for the arrangement, which she said she had to simplify because “the man with the syncopated shoes couldn’t do the syncopated notes.”
The song quickly entered the American songbook. Tommy Dorsey recorded it just three week after the movie debuted, followed by more than a dozen other bands before the war. It was popular with swing-era crooners, too, though most of them, like Frank Sinatra in this Nelson Riddle arrangement, dropped the opening verse.
Bebop musicians also favored the tune. Pianist Thelonious Monk recorded it several times.
