Joe Keaveny

Good news: "A House-approved payday lending bill is dead for this year, but two senators — one Republican and one Democrat — say they plan to write a much tougher measure in time for next year’s session."

The Post-Dispatch has a long editorial about ethics reform legislation and recent transgressions by state legislators of both parties.  The whole thing is worth the read, but these final two paragraphs need to be highlighted.

All of these [minor 2010 ethics reform proposals] would be nice, but they clearly don’t address the fundamental problem: Campaign money from special interests drives the public’s business. It employs a bunch of oxpeckers whose interests lie in perpetuating the system, not reforming it.

Unless and until Missouri restores limits on campaign contributions, the abuses will continue. Anything else simply is masquerading as ethics reform and is bogus.