Trust Your Congresscritter?

Representative Spencer Bachus (R-Alabama) is an important man. He's the top Republican on the House Financial Services Comittee and, apparently, he's very good at timing the markets:

In a single transaction on Dec. 10, Rep. Spencer Bachus of Alabama made up to $15,000 off an investment he had held for just two weeks, according to his congressional financial disclosure statement. He sold on the same day that the company, Focus Media Holding Ltd., got a market bounce off its announcement that it would acquire a competitor.

The trade was among dozens made in 2007 by the powerful congressman, whose public statements alone can influence markets. Most of his trades were short-term options in which Bachus bet that a stock price would rise or fall and made a quick profit or loss accordingly. Sometimes, he made several trades in the same week, supplementing his $165,200 annual congressional salary with up to $160,000 for the year.

So Bachus is trading puts & calls while "representing" the people of Alabama...and he made some suspicious trades, possibly with insider information. Should we chalk this up to bad personal decisions by a Washington insider? Or perhaps it's yet more evidence of the Republicans' ideology of corruption. You decide.