The Democratic House Leadership reached new heights in hypocrisy Monday with its ethics reform package which does nothing but perpetuate the inside deals and duplicity of their sordid reign of terror.

The Democrats grabbed some of the House Republican initiatives as their own, including the creation of some internal oversights panels for each caucus. And they made big hay over their desire to forbid William DiBella from running the Metropolitan District Commission as long as his is a lobbyist.

But to the key issue of allowing legislators to maintain their private positions as employees or executives with private non-profits while routinely voting on state funds which subsidize these organizations, the Democrats punted. The same for dual roles as legislators and employees of quasi-public agencies, such as the Connecticut Resource Recovery Authority (CRRA), where State Sen. Thomas Gaffey, D-Meriden, enjoys a healthy executive perch. Gaffey would be grandfathered under the Democrat’s plan.

Depending on how one measures it, there are two dozen Democratic legislators who toil during the day for non-profit agency, which receive an inordinate amount of state funds which subsidize their activities.

Last year, State Sen. Toni Harp, D-New Haven, actually put in a bill which asked for $6 million in state bond money for an agency she works for in her hometown. She saw nothing wrong with the request.

It seems the Democrats will settle for any headline that puts them in the same sentence as ethics, even though they have no intention of passing any meaningful reform.

The best reform is always an election.