01:00 AM EST on Monday, February 6, 2006

AS A PUBLIC-INTEREST lawyer and former executive director of the former Rhode Island Conflict of Interest Commission, former member of the Governor's Ethics Task Force under Gov. Bruce Sundlun, former director of the Rhode Island Ethics Commission, and former legal counsel and board member for Operation Clean Government, and still a member of that organization, I am not unfamiliar with the specter of scandal that hangs over Rhode Island like a gray pall, never quite lifting enough to let in the bright sunlight that is critical to disinfect constant corruption.

This chronic corruption that so bedevils Rhode Island is now again being exposed nationally. That is why I believe the race for U.S. Senate is so crucial this year.

Sheldon Whitehouse is asking for your vote. He is asking for your permission to make decisions for you in the Senate. We must question Mr. Whitehouse's request to send him to enter the fray as our senator at this critical moment of ethics upheaval in Washington. I remain unimpressed by his efforts on our behalf when he had the entrustment of public stewardship to zealously guard our rights to conflict-free government in Rhode Island.

I cannot help but wonder whether his inaction as attorney general and failure to prosecute Robert Urciuoli on fraud charges for Mr. Urciuoli's highly questionable expenses as president of Roger Williams Medical Center helped to encourage the hubris that became the pharmacy-choice scandal.

Despite an internal review commissioned by Roger Williams in the late 1990s that discovered thousands of dollars of inappropriate expenses and interest-free loans, revealing a consistent pattern of corrupt behavior, Attorney General Whitehouse did nothing. He failed to prosecute Mr. Urciuoli then, yet Mr. Whitehouse wants us to send him to Washington now.

As attorney general, Mr. Whitehouse did absolutely nothing to investigate the ills of the state traffic court. And they were many. In fact, Operation Clean Government ran a full-page ad in The Journal on March 27, 1999, asking anyone with information about the "lost $39 million" to bring evidence to members of OCG, which they would turn over to proper law-enforcement officers. Why was OCG, a grassroots citizen group, spearheading such an investigation instead of Attorney General Whitehouse?

Operation Clean Government is still waiting for the answer to the $39 million question: Where did all the money go?

During Mr. Whitehouse's watch as attorney general, Providence Mayor Vincent Cianci was felled by the Plunder Dome prosecution conducted by the U.S. attorney's office in Providence. I note there was no such corruption prosecution while Mr. Whitehouse was U.S. attorney for Rhode Island.

I have observed and studied the cycles of corruption in this state for more than two decades. I am never surprised, but always saddened, by the penny-ante nature of those who would sell their stewardship for what ultimately seems to be such chump change.

I suppose I have learned, however, that the real seduction of those who would abuse their station of stewardship is not tickets to box seats for sporting events, lavish dinners in places-to-be-seen, or even cold, hard cash.

No, the real seduction, it seems to me, is the thrill of control, of using power, of saying yes to some, no to others, and, perhaps, just being completely arbitrary. Public servants should never be arbitrary.

They must be considered in their judgments, and most importantly, always accountable to those whom they serve.

In particular, at this point in the history of yet another sad saga of the seemingly endless story of scandal in our state, with the disgrace of the Blue Cross/CVS pharmacy choice - State House scheme, and the ever-emerging breadth of the Jack Abramoff imbroglio in Washington, we must examine closely those who would ask our permission to make decisions for us.

We should be skeptical, always, of slogans and the promises of those who would ask our permission to lead, and, as in Mr. Whitehouse's case, compare such promises with the record of achievement in public office. We should hold Mr. Whitehouse accountable for his failure to tackle the chronic corruption that so impedes Rhode Island.

Mr. Whitehouse is the wrong choice to send to clean up the ethical mess in Washington.

Sara M. Quinn lives in Narragansett.