It is hard to figure out which gives us solace more these days – watching Hillary Clinton’s Presidential campaign fly apart like a newspaper being thrown from a car window, or the State Senate Democrats scrambling to get ethics religion.

Each seeks to whack the mole in a fruitless attempt to hide their own duplicity.

This week  State Senate President Don Williams, D-Brooklyn, and his compatriots in virtue, held a press conference outlining some proposals to tighten ethics standards and establish a permanent committee on professional conduct.

It did nothing to quell the continued questions about State Sen. Tom Gaffey, D-Meriden, or Sen. Williams and the issues surrounding the passage of a $1 billion in state spending for the Connecticut State University System (CSUS). Williams has never explained why he didn’t asked Gaffey to step aside from the final vote on the bonding proposal after the Gaff told him of his secret affair with Jill Ferraiolo, Associate Chancellor of CSUS, who lobbied for the proposal. Ferraiolo’s main job is to work the the Legislature.

At their press conference, the Senators couldn’t get their signals straight on whether their road to Damascus was paved by Gaffey’s conduct. Williams said it was, sort of, then it wasn’t. Ed Meyer said it was, and on it went.

Gaffey then tried to quietly get out of the mess by leaking a letter Friday afternoon to the Meriden Record Journal, asking Williams to take him off the Higher Education and Employment Opportunities Committee, where he serves as vice chairman. Gaffey claimed his “plate was full,” and he wanted to remove all doubt about his veracity. A little late for that now, Tom. But it will come as a relief to State Sen. Joan Hartley, D-Waterbury, who chairs the committee and was double-crossed by Gaffey by having this CSUS bill pushed behind her back. The bonding bill passed in September along partisan lines, 24-12, and Gov. Rell vetoed it.

It was Hartley who rightly pointed out that the original CSUS had no budgetary safeguards and could have led to the same problems which plagued the implementation of UConn 2000. Instead of working with Hartley on changes, the initial reaction of Williams and Gaffey was to threaten her with sanctions for not following them to overturn Gov. Rell’s rightful veto. Gaffey apparantly apologized to Hartley during a Democratic caucus.

Today, Gaffey’s hometown paper, the Meriden Record Journal goes into details about Gaffey’s role in the CSUS matter and his proclivity for using campaign funds for personal use. There is also a rehash of the 2004 Final Four tickets he received from CSUS President David Carter, who was President of Eastern Connecticut State University at the time. Gaffey paid only face value for the package, which to the normal unwashed would be thousands of dollars. No nose bleeds for Sen. Gaffey. His work is too important for that.

The next steps seem obvious:

• Will the state Elections Commission thoroughly review Gaffey’s PAC filings and fine him?
• Will the state Ethics Commission also look into the Final Four tickets and whether Ferraiolo showered gifts upon Gaffey that exceeded $100. She was making $140,000 a year after all.
• Will Jill Ferraiolo be reassigned to another post at CSUS and will the normally indignant groups rally to her cause like the Permanent Commission on the Status of Women?
• When with President David Carter explain why one of his charges was openly ridiculing his boss, Gov. Rell, and offering to help Sen. Gaffey on matters not related to her job or the goals of the CSUS?

Plenty to keep us busy between now and the opening of the February session.

Oh, and Hillary? Well, you can’t make it up.