Transparency and donuts, no more

Speaker Ron Richard seems to have put the kibosh -- at least temporarily -- on what was once his only mechanism for ensuring transparency and good government in the House: donuts.

Several sources in the Capitol have confirmed that Richard will cancel his regular donut offering press availability this week in response to the swift fact-checking that came after Richard's recent Fox News appearance.

Richard has resisted all efforts to strengthen ethics rules, and has previously pointed to his Q&A time with the press as a sufficient safeguard against legislative tomfoolery.  Many predicted that the Speaker's donuts-for-actual-ethics-reform trade would not last. Alas, they were right, and said "transparency" has proven to be far too inconvenient. 

This is an unfortunate development, on so many levels.