It’s also worth knowing, every time Blunt helps bring home a little money for U.S. Highway 65, whether he has investments in Branson, including a condominium valued at between $100,000 and $250,000. He did.

And it’s worth knowing that every time Blunt casts a vote on Mideast policy and aid to Israel that Blunt and his wife took a trip to Israel paid for by the American Israel Education Foundation at a cost of more than $9,000 in 2005.

Knowledge is power, but the danger here is one of too much information.

Pretty soon, it becomes impossible to impute anything but a self-serving motive to every vote, speech and handshake. I don’t think that’s the case with most politicians, who, like the rest of us, find themselves entangled in decisions that can be good and bad for them and good and bad for the country at the same time and aren’t sure where to land.

Voters have to guard against ignorance; they have to guard against cynicism as well.

Address correspondence to Andy Ostmeyer, c/o The Joplin Globe, P.O. Box 7, Joplin, Mo. 64802 or e-mail aostmeyer@joplinglobe.com.