Because while mere mortals may work 8 or 10 hours per day, we must expect elected officials to spend every waking minute working.
Really now? Show me who said that? Can you? Or are you being intentionally Obtuse, as usual?
But hey, to address that OUTLANDISH statement, No, not every waking moment... only when they are supposed to be "At work". When I read that Caption, it sounds to me like they were being addressed by Lawrence F. Cafero Jr at the time, and instead of paying attention, they were playing solitaire.
Perhaps, up in the Great White North, its acceptable to go out and Shave the Town Moose while doing your Sherrifin' or whatnot, but considering the fact that down here, we have "Officals" like this signing off on 100 page bills they dont read, or even know the contents of, seeing this sort of thing riles me a bit. If they want to do it between speakers, or while waiting for a session to start, fine. But that doesnt appear to be the case. Heck, you know what? I post to Martialtalk when I work, and I play games on the PC here too. My boss knows, and he doesnt care, but you can bet I'd lose my job if I did that when I should be taking calls, if I was ignoring alarms or doing that when I should be listening to our users describe their problems. When I am dealing with actual work, that stuff STOPS. I expect AT LEAST that level of from our Leaders and Officials who make decisions that effect LIVES. If they can't commit that much... maybe they need a job doing somthing less Vital.
Could you imagine going in for open heart surgery, and the surgeon stopping to play a round of Farkle in the middle, becaus he has your attitude that "Because while mere mortals may work 8 or 10 hours per day, we must expect Surgeons to spend every waking minute working?" And more to the point would you GO to that surgeon?