In a move that surprises no one, another D.C. insider is trying to cash in with a lucrative book deal.  This time it is POLITICO reporter Ken Vogel with a book titled, “Big Money: 2.5 Billion Dollars, One Suspicious Vehicle, and a Pimp – on the Trail of the Ultra-Rich Hijacking American Politics.”

Vogel tries to call out Rep. Cory Gardner for attending an event during the partial government shutdown.  But thing is, so what?  Gardner attended an event he had previously committed to, and as his spokesman made clear, it wasn’t a fundraiser.  Don’t we want members of Congress who keep their promises? 

You know what else Gardner did during the government shutdown?  He spent 16 days alone in his office answering the phones, and he donated the roughly $7,700 of salary he would have collected during the 16-day partial shutdown to charity.  And don’t confuse Gardner with rich members of Congress, like Sen. Michael Bennet, who also donated his salary.  Bennet has so much money he could do that job for free and still never missed a family Christmas in Vail.

Gardner isn’t one of the rich guys who ran for Congress out of boredom or to check something off a bucket list.  He is still making student loan payments and trying to pay off his mortgage like the rest of us.  We’re guessing that donating his salary wasn’t just a symbolic gesture for Gardner.  His family felt it.

So if anybody wants to talk about how Cory Gardner conducted himself during the government shutdown, don’t forget to mention the stuff that actually matters.