Speaker can stop tailspin

Fifty-six miles per hour in a 55 zone. That is the way Rep. Bill Faison, a Democrat who represents Orange and Caswell counties, described the apparently piddling charges against House Speaker Jim Black last week.

So the speaker, a fellow Democrat, took contributions over the limit and from businesses. So he took checks written on behalf of others, including blank checks he later turned over to a Republican who had switched parties, allowing him to be re-elected speaker. Big deal.

Apparently to some members of the legislature, these are no bigger infractions than pouring hamburger fat down the drain in Raleigh or ripping the tag off a mattress on the showroom floor.

And in a way, they're right. So far, what the state elections board has turned over to Wake's district attorney would amount to misdemeanor charges, if pursued.

But guess what? The speed limit is set to change.

Thanks to Black's shenanigans (ah, there is a silver lining ...) we in North Carolina can look forward to a raft of lobbying, campaign finance and ethics reforms over the next several months, as lawmakers gather for an election-year short session.

For Louisa Warren, the new director of the N.C. Coalition for Lobbying Reform, the election board hearings and investigations into Black's alleged misdeeds pose a rare opportunity. Her organization's parent group, Common Cause, has pushed for reforms for years. Unfortunately, it often takes scandal to give lawmakers the political oomph to make difficult changes. So this spring, the coalition (of dozens of groups from the left and right) will pursue an agenda unimaginable even a few years ago.

First on the docket: Move up a series of "first-step" measures adopted last year, originally to take effect in 2007. These include putting a six-month waiting period on legislators who want to become lobbyists. (Six months isn't long, but it's a start.) Next:

* A ban on gifts to lawmakers from lobbyists. The current proposal allows an exemption for "goodwill" gifts of food and beverage (can you say Vinnie's?), but Warren hopes it will be rewritten to allow only token gifts worth $10 or less.

* A ban on campaign contributions from lobbyists.

* And the creation of an independent ethics commission that has purview over both the administrative and legislative branches and wields real power to levy fines and even remove people from office.

Of course, we may end up calling it the Black Memorial bill.

The drumbeat for Black to step down as speaker is building momentum -- on Sunday, from The News & Observer's editorial page, and last Friday from his hometown paper in Charlotte.

By staying on, he puts his allies in the Democratic Party in the terrible position of having to answer for his alleged transgressions through the next election cycle. (Not to mention paying his legal bills.)

No one wants to be disloyal. No one can afford to. But how do you support someone who has knowingly skirted state election laws?

Voters have a different notion of velocity. To Faison and other lawmakers, Black's actions may amount to driving 56 in a 55 zone. Those speedometers are about to be recalled.