From the Credit Where It's Due department...

While most Congresscritters will offer up all kinds of excuses for their ethical lapses - 'I didn't know about the rule,' 'I didn't know about the deed,' 'Clinton did it,' whatever - at least one Senator is perfectly up front about his total lack of concern for legality...

TULSA, Okla. -- Freshman Sen. Tom Coburn will go ahead with his fight to retain his medical practice while serving in Congress, even though the Senate Ethics Committee has rejected his request.

"No, I am not going to close my medical practice," Coburn, R-Okla., said Tuesday. "I am going to wait and see what the Ethics Committee decides finally, and then I'm going to try to change the rules."

Yep, he knows it's against the rules, he's been told to stop and he just doesn't give a damn. Bold practicioner of civil disobedience in the face of oppressive regulation or ordinary scofflaw? You decide. But be warned.

"There's going to be a whole lot of heck to pay up here because if I am working up here five solid days a week, I'm going to create all sorts of mischief, much more so than I would otherwise," he said.

Yep, a full five day week for $158K a year with full health care and a generous pension plan is a bit much to ask, isn't it?