I’ve not often had a kind word to say about Senate Democratic Majority Leader Tony Rand. I do today.

It seems hard to believe but House Speaker Jim Black has made Rand, the man who removed the crosses and Bibles from the Senate Chapel, look like a paragon of public virtue when it comes to ethics reform.

The fight on Ethics Reform in the State House boils down to this: Who is going to be the policeman? Who will enforce the rules, decide when they are broken and mete-out the punishment?

The House says the policeman should be, well, the House. Which, in effect, means Jim Black because Black, as Speaker, has iron-fist control of the House.

Of course, that makes a mockery of ethics reform because Black, the policeman, is one whose ethics – in the ‘pay to play’ scandals – are the issue.

Senator Rand, to his credit, is preparing Senate legislation that would set up an independent ethics committee to be the policeman over the House and Senate. We don’t know the details of Rand’s plan but that certainly beats putting the fox in charge of the hen house.

So, here’s a good word for Tony Rand.

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