Cheaters, the series: Let's save time -- anyone who has not cheated taxpayers, raise your hand

It is just getting silly now.

At the rate the "misunderstandings" are piling up in Raleigh, pretty soon there will not be anyone left to pass ethics legislation -- they will all be under investigation.

So let's save some time and taxpayer money.

If you are in Raleigh and in any way connected with state government, and you have not arranged a stupid contract that allows a health plan to assess board of trustee meals to state employees and taxpayers, if you have owned up to all personal expenses that have been accidentally charged to a place they shouldn't be or if you have not accepted an untoward gift from a lobbyist in any form, step forward.

If you do not have anything else in your immediate past that would embarrass you and your constituents if it were flushed out, raise your hand.

And last but not least, if you are about to appear on the cover of Star magazine for any reason, just let us know now.

If we clear the air before there are any more surprises, perhaps we can save time and a whole lot of wasted taxpayer money on investigations.

And in the meantime we can think a whole lot more about what we want to see in leaders at the state and national levels.

The rest we can chalk up to "lessons learned."

Published in Editorials on February 18, 2010 10:58 AM