The folks who run the Illinois General Assembly apparently can’t help themselves.

Going back to the bribes Samuel Insull paid legislators to create the Illinois Commerce Commission so he would not have to pay future legislators bribes (just ICC Commissioners) to hike electric rates and, obviously, far beyond, ethics has been an untouchable topic.

Now comes crooked Commonwealth Edison and its parent company Exelon seeking more favoritism after admitted to being a corrupt company.

The fallout from this and a number of other legislators being indicted for misdeeds led to an effort this year to tighten restrictions on conflict of interest.

One topic was the revolving door aspect of legislators who become lobbyists.

Mark Brown of the Chicago Sun-Times puts this lens on it:

“Even with the paltry six-month limit (on lobbying), Illinois legislators gave themselves a gaping loophole.

“The six-month ban doesn’t extend into the next legislative session. Which means lawmakers can leave office at the end of their term and start work as lobbyists the next day, when the new two-year session starts.

“It makes you wonder why they set a limit at all, except for the obvious reason:

“They wanted the public to think they did something.”

The “they” of course, is the legislative leaders bending to the pressure of their members against meaningful reform.