Indignation can come from the strangest places. Take Jim Norman. Last week, the Hillsborough County commissioner trashed a proposal by Commissioner Kathy Castor to close a loophole in the county's ethics law. The intent of Castor's measure was to record meetings outside the office between lobbyists and county officials.
You'd think Norman, of all people, would keep mum. This is the same guy, after all, who was caught ensconced in a Las Vegas gambling parlor with a Tampa garbage-hauling lobbyist, on a trip arranged by a political supporter whom Norman tried to help get county business. You couldn't draw a better parallel between Norman's behavior in Vegas and what the change in ethics law was meant to expose.
But Norman - emboldened, perhaps, by being cleared in a federal corruption probe - reduced the measure to ridiculous terms. Having a Coke with a lobbyist, he said, or meeting over beans in the aisle at Publix would start "a lot of finger pointing."
"Everything we do here," he said, "has to have a level of trust involved."
Trust, however, is a two-way street, and Norman burned up plenty years ago with the conflicting stories about his Vegas stay. It's a shame no commissioner singled out Norman for the poster child on ethics he is.
Castor's proposal - which died, incidentally, after Norman's harrumph - had its problems. It wasn't tough enough. But that Norman had the gall to lecture anyone should show the ethics law isn't doing the job.
