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“Being short of a job, his uncle had advised politics.” –John Buchan, The Thirty-nine Steps

A tugboat captain, a vintner, and an astronaut walk into a bar—no scratch that—walk onto the Senate floor.

This isn’t a joke. Members of Congress have a surprising amount of experience in fields beyond politics.

Just this year, the 111th Congress includes two veterinarians (Kurt Schrader and John Ensign), two vintners (George Radanovich and Mike Thompson), a comedian (Al Franken), an ironworker (Stephen Lynch), a meat cutter (Robert Byrd, the longest-serving senator in US history), a tugboat captain (Don Young), an allergist (Steve Kagen), a microbiologist (Louise Slaughter), an astronaut (Bill Nelson), and an NFL football player (Heath Schuler), to name a few.

But the most common former occupations are law, public service, and (you guessed it) politics.

• The odds a congressional representative has experience as a state legislator are 1 in 1.99(50%), the same odds that a person 12 or older will drink alcohol in a month (1 in 1.99).
• The odds a congressional representative has experience as a congressional staffer (1 in 4.95) are roughly the odds that an NFL field goal attempt will be unsuccessful (1 in 4.99).
• The odds a congressional representative has experience as a mayor, 1 in 14.59, are also the odds that a woman has ever had an ulcer (1 in 14.59).
• And the odds a congressional representative has experience as a White House staffer/fellow, 1 in 33.75, are also the predicted odds a white person aged 68 will live to be at least 100 years old (1 in 33.74).

If one were to draw up one big résumé for Congress, though, these professions would not begin to cover it. After all, Samuel Adams was a maltster. John Glenn, an astronaut. Bill Bradley, an NBA Hall-of-Famer.

Other politicians and their odd jobs include:

• Millard Fillmore, a congressman and later 13th president of the United States, was at one time a cloth-maker's apprentice in New York.
• Hiram Rhodes Revels, the first African-American to serve in the Senate, was formerly a barber's apprentice and pastor.
• Strom Thurmond, the longest-filibustering and second-longest-serving congressman in history, started out as a farmer and teacher.
• Jeannette Rankin, founding vice president of the ACLU and America's first congresswoman, was a social worker and activist.

The following are professions formerly held by current members of Congress, corresponding to the odds a congressional representative has experience in them (1/2007-1/2009):

• Medical doctor: 1 in 41.54
• State governor: 1 in 60
• Minister: 1 in 90
• Accountant: 1 in 108
• Police officer: 1 in 135
• Physicist: 1 in 180
• Professional musician: 1 in 180
• Carpenter: 1 in 180
• Dentist: 1 in 270
• Veterinarian: 1 in 270
• FBI agent: 1 in 540
• Radio broadcaster: 1 in 540

So is Congress just a motley crew? Some might say it’s pluralism at its best.