Hey, it's hard work fulminating in Washington about executive perks and pay.

Members of Congress have spent hours expressing outrage over CEOs' outlandish salaries, bonuses and trips. And getting the stimulus bill passed was a long, hard slog.

So who is to fault some lawmakers for using the winter recess as an opportunity to get out of Dodge?

Lots of people. More so than in most years, the overseas journeys popular among members of Congress are raising eyebrows at home.

Politicians should have seen the backlash coming. Americans are worried about their finances and the nation's economy. They're postponing purchases and putting vacation plans on hold. And the federal deficit is exploding.

This would have been a good year for elected representatives to stay home and show solidarity with constituents.

Some did. But plenty set off on trips paid for either by U.S. taxpayers or by sponsors.

The most high-profile traveler is House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, who is connecting with her Italian roots on a trip to Rome. Pelosi led a delegation of Congress members, staff and spouses that traveled on an Air Force jet.

She met with the pope and was scheduled to meet with U.S. troops and NATO officials. But news footage also showed the speaker visiting museums and being presented with a copy of her Italian grandparents' birth records.

Rep. Dennis Moore, a Democrat from Kansas, is part of a delegation visiting NATO headquarters in Brussels, then moving on to Paris, Vienna and a ski center in the Alps.

In normal times, these trips could perhaps be defended as educational and good for international relations.

But these times are anything but normal. Members of Congress shouldn't be surprised if constituents resent them for treading too close to the behavior for which they so roundly criticized corporate executives.

— The Kansas City Star

n n nIf you want a friend in Washington, Harry Truman advised, get a dog. Right about now, President Barack Obama must be marveling at Truman's wisdom. In office just one month, the president barely managed to scrape up three votes from Republicans for his stimulus plan. Now his erstwhile friends on the left are grumbling that Obama has not done enough to change Bush-era policies on the war on terror.The critics need to take a time out. The president hasn't exactly been dragging his feet. Within days of his inauguration, Obama sent a clear signal of his direction on civil liberties. He ordered the prison at Guantanamo Bay to shut down in a year, put a halt to military commission trials, restricted the techniques CIA interrogators can use, ordered secret prisons closed and issued an order promoting more disclosure and ordering less secrecy.Did we forget something? Well, yes. Obama's CIA director, Leon Panetta, said the new administration would strictly adhere to anti-torture statutes and international treaties.His attorney general, Eric Holder, said loud and clear what former President Bush's appointees to that job never dared utter — that waterboarding is torture.Has he moved fast enough in most instances to reverse controversial policies? Yes, decisively.Has he moved far enough in all cases? For some, surely not, but moderation can sometimes be a virtue.Critics who have closely followed Obama's actions regarding civil liberties are disappointed. One oft-cited instance involved supporting a Bush administration decision to invoke the "state secrets" doctrine to shut down a lawsuit by former CIA detainees against an aircraft company allegedly used to transfer them to secret prisons.White House Counsel Gregory B. Craig told the New York Times that the "state secrets" doctrine has been used by every recent president and was properly invoked here. Maybe he's right, but who's to know? The whole point of the doctrine is to conceal information that would shed light on government activity, lawful or not. That makes it tempting for presidents — all presidents — to use the "state secrets" claim to bury their embarrassments.No president deserves a pass on the issue of executive authority vs. individual liberty. Critics should cut Obama some slack, but they should remain vigilant for abuses of executive power. Meanwhile, Obama should hurry up and get that dog. He's going to need it.