A LESSON IN PROPORTION FOR THE ETHICALLY CHALLENGED

Let's see. Am I the only one who sees the difference here?

In 1998, Dean's Vermont similar task force met in secret to write a plan for revamping state electricity markets that would slow rising consumer costs and relieve utilities of a money-losing deal with a Canadian company.

The task force's work resulted in Vermont having the first utility in the country to meet energy efficiency standards. It also freed the state's utilities from their deal with a Canadian power company, Hydro Quebec, that had left them near bankruptcy but passed as much as 90 percent of those costs to consumers. Utility shareholders also suffered some losses.

The parallels between the Cheney and Dean task forces are many.

Both declined to open their deliberations, even under pressure from legislators. Both received input from the energy industry in private meetings, and released the names of task force members publicly.

Dean's group volunteered the names of those it consulted with in its final report. While Cheney has refused to formally give a list to Congress to preserve the White House's right to private advice, known as executive privilege, his aides have divulged to reporters the names of many of those from whom the task force sought advice.

The Bush-Cheney campaign and Republican Party received millions in donations from energy interests in the election before its task force was created. Dean's Vermont re-election campaign received only small contributions from energy executives, but a political action committee created as he prepared to run for president collected $19,000, or nearly a fifth of its first $110,000, from donors tied to Vermont's electric utilities.

There's an ethics rule of thumb in journalism, and it goes something like this: If someone buys you lunch, your integrity has not been compromised - because it's assumed you have - at the very least - enough integrity that you wouldn't sell it for a sandwich. It's when they start buying you cars that the alarms go off.

There's a huge difference between what Dean did in Vermont and what Cheney did in Washington. It's the difference between a sandwich and a Maserati.

Obviously, most journalists are so unfamiliar with the application of ethics guidelines to their own behavior (i.e. George Will), they've simply forgotten how it works.
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