Dumb Ethics Ruling on Politics in State House

The Boston Globe this morning details this State Ethics Commission Ruling that bars elected officials from engaging in political activities in the State House and other state facilities.

While this makes sense in principle, the breadth of the ruling is dumb and impractical. In the example given in the article,

under the new rules, once political questions dominate the news conference, it must be stopped. ''The press officer should conclude the interview by referring the media representative to the campaign for further discussion," the advisory says.

That's so impractical as to be absurd, and what Rob Gray said in the article is right: this allows Press Secretaries or officials to simply say "oops, can't touch that question, too political."

C'mon.