The Ethics of the Ethics Vote

To paraphrase a major newspaper columnist, a little bird told us that some challengers are trying to turn the vote to enact the pay-to-play ban despite Gov. Blagojevich's veto against incumbents. These challengers are apparently claiming that the vote to override the veto was a vote against ethics. Nothing could be further from the truth.

HB 824, the pay-to-play bill, was a hard-fought, carefully-vetted measure with wide support, under the dome and outside of it. The Governor's re-write was sloppy and likely unconstitutional.

After the Governor vetoed HB 824, the correct, ethical vote was to override his veto. We commend all legislators who made that decision.