D.D. 07/12/05

You would expect ethics to be a hot issue in Tennessee politics right now, what with some sitting legislators being charged with corruption and carted off in handcuffs. Still, there are plenty of stumbling blocks when it comes to reforming ethics laws to something sensible. The Tennessean reports today that a member of Governor Bredesen's appointed ethics review committee was herself investigated for a conflict of interest issue. A resolution that would have expelled those members indicted in Tennessee Waltz has been stalled under the banner of "innocent until proven guilty." Meanwhile, since the state has no ethics enforcement mechanism, the Senate ethics committee will be forwarding its findings to a Shelby County Attorney General for review and leave the decision about formal charges with that office. Investigative journalist Phil Williams has recently done some work the FBI may have missed, unveiling secret memos between OmniCare officials and State Sen. John Ford and between Ford and key lobbyists like Jimmy Naifeh's wife Betty Anderson. Matthew White has proved a substantial lists of reforms that ought to be looked at, but I fear that many of them may not even see the light of day.