Entropy

People are making a lot of hay from the scandal aurrounding Jack Abramoff. But on a timescale of years, rather than months, the one and only meaningful consequence of the affair will be whether the transparency of political cash flows has increased.

Roger L. Simon, who has never been shy about calling for transparency at the U.N., is silent on this issue. So is media-transparency maven Jeff Jarvis. Others are seeing only a Democratic opportunity, or a pressure point to move Republicans back toward small government.

Unless you are an influence-peddler yourself, you should be ignoring all that bird food and concentrating on the one thing that can make a lasting difference: transparency.