I didn’t watch the Super Bowl. I didn’t see the now infamous song in which Justin Timberlake tore off part of Janet Jackson’s outfit and exposed her breast. Indeed, until the news of this became a national sensation, I’d never heard of Justin Timberlake. Both of these confessions should make it clear that I am an expert neither on football nor popular music. I do know something, however, about law and the legislative process. Thus, it is with a mixture of bemusement and horror that I have watched the massive response of official Washington to the Timberlake/Jackson fiasco.

I have no doubt whatsoever that what Ms. Jackson and Mr. Timberlake did was in bad taste. But, then again, I think what passes for clothing on Massachusetts Street on a Saturday night also is often in bad taste. I can’t say that I’m overly enthusiastic about the tattoos I see occasionally on my students or about the variety of body piercings that intrude upon my consciousness as I walk downtown in Lawrence. And Lawrence is mild.

The last time I visited San Francisco, I felt about a 150 years old wearing my sportcoat and tie and not a single ring anywhere on my body except on my finger. I confess that I have seen a picture of Ms. Jackson exposed in the newspaper and it doesn’t do very much for me. If I had children and I did watch the Super Bowl with them, I’d probably not want them to be exposed to it, but, then again, I’d also be hesitant to ever let them out of the house, given the current state of the world.

But no matter how distasteful one may find the behavior of Jackson and Timberlake on television, I also have to say that the idea that the U.S. Congress, at a time when American troops are dying in foreign lands, when the federal deficit is growing at a frightening pace, when children are starving in American cities, is spending one minute of its time on the degree to which Ms. Jackson’s anatomy has been displayed on national television and how Congress can pass new legislation to prevent this from happening again is simply beyond my wildest bad dreams.

If our representatives in Congress wonder why we, the people of the United States, have lost faith in them, then I have a message for them. Where is your sense of proportion? Have you ever heard of priorities? Many terrible things happen in the world each day. Even more tasteless things go on. But the Congress of the United States is the body that is supposed to deal with the sacred trust of running this country which we have given to them.

How many of us want Congress to spend time on whether or not Janet Jackson’s breast should be on national television but ignore the fact that Social Security may well be bankrupt in 10 years? There’s hardly enough time for Congress to do a fraction of what needs to be done. How dare they waste their time on such trivial issues.

If people don’t like what happened, then let them boycott Jackson’s and Timberlake’s recordings. Let them boycott the television network. They’d be much better off reading anyway. Indeed, let them boycott the Super Bowl, perish the thought. But not enough people are sufficiently upset about what happened to do that. So why does Congress waste its precious time on the issue?

The answer, of course, is politics. So much of what Congress does these days is for show. What’s the point of statesmanlike behavior if it doesn’t fit in a 10-second sound bite? If the fuss over the halftime show at the Super Bowl were the only incident of this sort, it would be amusing. But the fact of the matter is that this goes on time after time. Congress has lost its way. And if it doesn’t find its way back onto the path soon, the future of the United States is truly in jeopardy.

The world is a dangerous place. Never before have so many risks threatened our way of life. The presidential candidates all speak of leadership, but our system of government requires leadership not only from our chief executive but also from every member of the House and the Senate. It is time — indeed, it is past time — for Congress to play a little less politics and spend a bit more of its energies on leading America. If they don’t then it’s time for all of us to find new representatives in that August body.

As for Jackson and Timberlake, I suspect that they’re quietly laughing; how many performers can get both Houses of Congress to do their public relations work for them?

Mike Hoeflich, a professor in the Kansas University law school, writes a regular column for the Journal-World.