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Quote of the Day

Wednesday, July 1st, 2009
Robert Wechsler
I don’t care what state you are talking about, you are always going to have one or two people who are going to do the wrong thing. That’s human life. But the bottom line is: I can tell you that my members who are in the House of Representatives are here for the right reason, and I am just a little cautious to make a regulation for one person.

Reaction of Rhode Island House Speaker William J. Murphy to Gov. Carcieri's suggestion that the state legislature place a constitutional amendment on the 2010 ballot, giving the public a chance to give the state ethics commission full jurisdiction over state legislators, despite the Speech in Debate Clause (see yesterday's blog post). Rhode Island has a long history of so many bad apples, they changed the metaphor to a local fruit:  the cranberry bog. The House Speaker doesn't appear to have kept up. From today's Providence Journal

Story Topics: 
Ethics Codes, Ethics Commissions/Administration, Ethics Environments, Ethics Reform, Jurisdiction, Legislative Immunity, In the news

Comments

Shane W says:

Fri, 2009-07-10 01:15

This line sounds sarcastic in approach. Well there are lots of initial issues before 2010. The 110 Rules of Civility and Decency in Company and Conversation was a document authored by 16 year old George Washington, who laid out every day guidelines for behavior, ethics, and manners, and the gist of the list is cultivating civility and modesty. Washington came from a different era, in which modesty, dignity, and stoicism were desirable qualities in a gentleman of any class. The sort of qualities payday loans can't buy. Some people would pay big unsecured loans to get the original copy of the Rules of Civility and Decent Behavior in Company and Conversation.