So, in doing some research for yesterday’s post about questionable interactions between the judiciary and legislature in Rhode Island, I came across (and linked to) a Providence Journal piece on what appears to be a regular practice of nepotistic hiring between the two branches. Yet, today I read about some Ethics Commission charges against Governor Carcieri:

For the second time, the Ethics Commission yesterday found probable cause to believe Governor Carcieri broke the state ethics law, this time by failing to file a financial disclosure statement last spring. …
The commission had already found probable cause to believe Governor Carcieri violated the state ethics law when he accepted tickets from Fleet Bank to watch a New England Patriots game in December 2003 from the bank’s private box at Gillette Stadium.

I should disclose that I don’t know all of the intricacies of the Ethics Commission and its stated purposes. The work that it does is certainly important. That said, I’ll admit that I’m less concerned about questionable form-filing and tickets valued at $1,791 (given to a millionaire) than I am about the possibility of a private intragovernment job search service. Honest question: will the Ethics Commission be looking into that, or do we need another one?