Farber: New Jersey Too Ethical For Our Own Good

You can't make this stuff up.

When the moment comes and you're forced to step down from public office, hardly any boss will begrudge you a parting shot, even if it's a silly one. And so, Attorney General Zulima Farber said she resigned because to stay on the job could damage the people's confidence in her department.

Governor Corzine looked on noncommittally.

Public confidence in Farber and her department hasn't been great since May, when she rushed to the aid of her boyfriend, who called her after the cops stopped him for not wearing his seat belt. The police also noted that he was driving an unregistered vehicle and driving with a suspended license.

Such is the stuff that shakes public confidence.

Farber said she never asked the police to kill the tickets. But a special prosecutor has concluded she trampled state ethics provisions by using her title to get unwarranted privileges, causing suspicion of wrongdoing and allowing a personal relationship to influence her official duties.

Here's more that could shake public confidence. In announcing she would quit as of Aug. 31, Farber said the existence of strict rules of ethics could cause people who would ordinarily seek a career in public service to look elsewhere for work, The Record reported.

"The moral is we're setting such a high standard," Farber said.

She was the wrong person for the wrong job at the wrong time. In other words, she was Exhibit A for all that ails New Jersey politics.

The kicker is that Farber thinks that New Jersey's ethical standards are too high. Sorry, but those rules are in effect because we're repeatedly reminded that politicians use and abuse their positions to their favor and bend the rules to help friends and family in a way that people without the same level of access would never be able to see. The rules are there to protect us from crooked politicians and to safeguard taxpayers from waste and corruption.