I appreciate your comments regarding the more than questionable monetary enrichment gained by members of Congress.  You are absolutely correct, and it should be repeated at length in every political discussion.

However, to state that all things are always equal because they are all variations on a single type of wrongdoing, is not correct.  Conning someone out of $100 and conning someone out of $1,000 may both be "conning," but they may not be equal at all.  The degree of wrongdoing will always depend on the entirety of the whole context of facts.

Additionally, because people do not respond in equal outrage to the $100 con as they do the $1,000 con doesn't mean they have no ethical grounds for responding with outrage to the $1,000 con.   There are grounds, however, for charges of hypocrisy when people scream outrage at the $100 theft and turn around and justify the $1000 theft, especially when measurable context supports such charges.