Rep. Curry Todd (R-95) repeated Sen. Bill Ketron’s recent finger pointing at the media for what Republicans are about to do to the one government body that protects us from corrupt politicians.
Rep. Todd made the statement as the state legislature considers Sen. Bill Ketron’s (R-13) bill to scrap the Ethics Commission to save money.
Todd, who seems to enjoy playing the love-hate relationship game with the Capitol press corps, told the House Finance Budget Subcommittee today that the ethics commission in its current form was the media’s fault, not the result of that pesky Operation Tennessee Waltz bribery scandal.
“If you’re going to conduct something illegal, you’re going to do it anyway, regardless of what kind of ethics you’ve got in place,” Todd told House Speaker Kent Williams, R-Elizabethton, when Williams asked about workload of the current ethics commission.
“I think there was a rush in judgment with regards to some of the media outlets that helped drive that in the state. They probably don’t like what I said, but they don’t like a lot of things I say.”
The Editorial Board of the Daily News Journal published a different take yesterday arguing lawmakers need to fully empower the Ethics Commission.
It’s unfortunate that Tennessee needs such a body to keep an eye on legislators, but the record shows that our state lawmakers are no more honest than the general public — and probably less so. And once they arrive in Nashville, many of them don’t know how to say “no” to smooth-talking, big-spending lobbyists.
Party affiliation makes no difference in this Ethics Commission argument. Democrats and Republicans alike can fall prey to temptations on Capitol Hill, and because the nature of politics and power is corrupting, Tennessee needs to maintain independent checks and balances to ensure lobbyists and legislators are playing by the rules.
Sen. Ketron got his way today. Now the Ethics Commission has been declawed. Lawmakers and lobbyists with some unethical business to tend to must be the happiest people in state government. Thanks, Sen. Ketron.