Politician-lobbyist sex is ethical, says panel

In North Carolina, lobbyists must report any gift to a politician worth over $10. According to their State Ethics Commission, the lobbyist would not have to report any sexual activity with a political official as a gift exceeding $10.

That’s right. The Ethics Commission thinks secret sex between elected officials and lobbyists is more ethical than secretly picking up the check at a Burger King drive through.

“Consensual sexual relationships do not have monetary value and therefore are not reportable as gifts or reportable expenditure made for lobbying” Committee letter

Isn’t this great! Imagine this scenario:

A politician and a lobbyist meet in the politician’s office, clear the desk and rip each other’s clothes off. The lobbyist, always concerned with health and safety, paid for a healthy supply of condoms for just such an event, and the two go at it like minks. The whole affair is kept secret.

The Ethics Commission would rule that the ethical problem in the above scenario is that the lobbyist paid for the condoms.

This is why I usually deny my trust and confidence in these “bipartisan-nonpartisan” commissions to do the work of elected officials – they come up with some pretty dumb decisions absent the approval of the voting public.

Having no powerful, all-knowing, all-seeing, all-judging Ethics Commission in Virginia, we don’t get the benefit of rulings like the “politicians and lobbyists can have sex as long as it doesn’t involve lunch” ruling.

But given the blog fodder it could generate, it might be fun to have one.

Only if Del. Joe Morrissey is Chairman.