Is the City Council not a job?

When politicians do outlandish things, are they just brazen or merely foolish -- or perhaps a bit of both?

Rep. Anthony Weiner, the New York Democrat in hot water for sending suggestive photos of himself to women over the Internet, will have the nation arguing about this one for quite awhile.

Meanwhile, closer to home, the case of Michael Fagen raises the question anew. In November 2009, Fagen was elected as a Democrat to the Long Beach City Council, a part-time job paying $19,828 a year.

Pay close attention to the word "job" in the previous sentence, because prosecutors say that Fagen had been getting $405 a week in unemployment benefits since September 2009 -- and that once he took office, he kept right on collecting. Fagen even allegedly certified each week that he was jobless, despite his new, very public job as one of the people in charge of the City of Long Beach, pop. 33,275.

Now he's accused of grand larceny. His alleged ill-gotten unemployment gain: $7,108.

Fagen is innocent unless proven guilty, of course. But if he is found guilty, one wonders what might have been going through his head. Is being an elected official such a transcendent calling for him that it simply bore no resemblance to employment? Or did the new job merely slip his mind every time he had to fill out the Labor Department forms?

If convicted, Fagen faces up to seven years in the slammer. State officials might want to watch the mail closely for unemployment checks.