Federal lawmakers who accepted a flu shot despite not being eligible for one under current rules provided another example of what's wrong on Capitol Hill. Lawmakers, who campaign on the premise of serving their constituents, once elected, first and foremost worry about serving themselves.

That's evident in their generous cost-of-living pay increases and top-of-the-line fringe benefits, including health coverage that average Americans cannot afford. Now, lawmakers outside the range of flu shot eligibility, who accepted the vaccine nonetheless, have denied those shots to people who really should have had them.

Some of the excuses that have been expressed by the culprit lawmakers don't stand up to scrutiny. The flu vaccine shortage has been well publicized for weeks and was predicted earlier.

The purported advice of Dr. John Eisold, the Capitol physician, who recommended that all lawmakers receive shots, should not have been heeded by lawmakers outside the eligibility criteria other Americans are required to follow.

Eisold used as his justification the premise that lawmakers frequently come into contact with children and older people, and could spread as well as catch the flu. What's bogus about that argument is that most other Americans who aren't eligible for the vaccine now come into contact with children and older people also - and could also spread as well as catch the flu.

Especially noteworthy among the Capitol Hill culprits is Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist, R-Tenn., who allowed his office to be used as a makeshift clinic for dispensing shots to senators on Oct. 7, two days after federal officials announced there would be a severe shortage and urged healthy adults to forgo the shots.

Some lawmakers are older than 65 and qualified for the shots under that criterion. Others have medical conditions that qualified them.

But those who were ineligible and got the shots anyway displayed arrogance that shouldn't be ignored or dismissed by Americans content with following the rules.