Jeff Merkley, seeking the Democratic nomination for U.S. Senate, has a point when he says he'll continue political fundraising during the coming legislative session but won't accept donations from anyone having business before the legislature. He's running a statewide race against a vastly better-funded incumbent, and there's no way he can suspend raising money for an entire month.

His trouble is that this conflicts with rules laid down by the House and, as the speaker, he sets a poor example by flouting the rules as soon as they hurt him.

To be sure, Merkley says he has an opinion by legislative counsel that the House rule against fundraising by legislators during a session does not apply to legislators running for federal office. That may be what the lawyers say, but it sounds like a lame excuse. If the issue is influence peddling, what difference does it make whether the legislator getting contributions from the special interests is running for state or federal office? Either way it looks bad.

The answer is to change the rule, which the House adopted for itself under Merkley's leadership just last session.

Starting next Monday the legislature will meet in a test of possible annual sessions. If annual sessions ever do become routine, there will never again be an election year without a session. So there will always be a possible problem with the House rule, in that it disadvantages any House member running for Congress or the U.S. Senate.

We can rely on full disclosure of political contributions to keep politics clean. Anybody now can check online who's getting how much from whom almost before the ink dries on the check. (Actually, while the legislature is in session, within two days of the contribution.) And you can bet that as soon as somebody with a legislative interest gives a House member money for his campaign, somebody on the other side will point it out.

Any danger from such contributions during a legislative session is no greater than at any other time, so the rule that is now embarrassing Merkley can safely be dropped. (hh)