Jeeves for Prime Minister?

[strange-complex.livejournal.com]

I often read e-books during my lunch break, and today I was reading the story 'Leave it to Jeeves' from the collection My Man Jeeves, also published in slightly modified form as 'The Artistic Career of Corky' in Carry On Jeeves. A couple of lines which caught my attention were as follows:

"It beats me sometimes why a man with his genius is satisfied to hang around pressing my clothes and whatnot. If I had half Jeeves's brain, I should have a stab at being Prime Minister or something."

This really interested me, because of course this is a point at which the Woosterverse arguably becomes a little fragile. Create a character who's superhumanly intelligent and well-educated, and yet still serving as a valet, and critics will counter: "Well, why doesn't he do something more profitable and challenging with himself?"

And here Wodehouse was, drawing attention to the matter: actively inviting his readers to ponder it for themselves, and consider their own answer to the question.

So this is what I would like to know: why do you think Jeeves remains in service with Bertie? Of course the obvious slashy answer is "Because he's hot for him!" You're fully encouraged to answer in that spirit, natch, but I'd also be genuinely interested to hear what people have to say if the slash is left to one side.

I know what I think: I'm just interested to know whether others think along the same lines or not.