It gets worse. Another less-known but far more insidious injustice infects the program. Hidden on the internship application is a box applicants check if they desire to be evaluated "only under equal opportunity criteria." This sly sentence attempts to obscure the fact that a select number of internships are doled out under a different criteria; that sons and daughters of donors and political insiders are given an institutionally sanctioned upper hand over their hard working peers. Who needs grades, skills and letters of recommendation when you have connections?

Striking a note of poetic justice in this chord of American disharmony, Monica Lewinsky has become the perfect exemplar of what's wrong with the system. Daughter of a well connected Beverly Hills doctor and family friend of a high rolling Democratic donor, Monica not only secured but was able to pursue her internship because she had the "in" and financial support to do so.

Less fortunate applicants, left in the lurch by the double whammy of average parents with average-sized bank accounts, can't cope by finding scholarships because tax codes prohibit foundations from funding participation in partisan political activity.

The White House Interns Program is not alone. In Congress, and indeed in every state house and governor's office across the country, the vast majority of political internships come without pay and most sanction less-than-meritocratic means of entry.

Politicians publicly ridicule each other for supporting programs that reinforce existing injustices, economic and otherwise. It's time for them to end the hypocrisy by paying their interns an honest wage for an honest day's work.

Christopher M. Kirchhoff '01 is a history and science concentrator in Winthrop House. His column appears on alternate Wednesdays.