The conduct of GOP vice-presidential nominee Sarah Palin’s 17-year-old daughter Bristol has garnered immense attention.

Vastly less coverage has been given to the offspring of Democratic vice-presidential nominee Joseph Biden, including his 38-year-old son Hunter Biden. That may seem odd, since Hunter is a grownup, not a teenager, and he dramatically embodies the nexus of special-interest money, political-family connections and power in Washington that involves both parties. (Who could forget how mired in special deals was the GOP-controlled House until the party lost control in the 2006 elections?)

Mr. Biden the younger has made a lucrative living as a registered Washington lobbyist since 2001. Surely, his connections to his powerful father, a member of the Senate for nearly 36 years, did not hurt his business.

Indeed, he is far from alone. At least 24 House members and 31 senators have spouses, children or other relatives registered as lobbyists, according to the liberal watchdog group Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington. It’s a way for families to cash in on the public service of politicians. That’s one reason why so many ex-federal legislators stay in Washington after they leave. It’s the place to make a killing off connections.

The initial reporting on Mr. Biden the younger has produced some interesting information:

• The law firm he co-founded, Oldaker, Biden and Belair, was paid $1.8 million to lobby Congress during the first six months of this year, according to USA Today.

• Senator Biden’s two campaign funds have paid the firm $208,000 for legal services since 2005, USA Today reported.

• Senator Biden worked to defeat a bipartisan bill to curb asbestos lawsuits even as his son Beau’s law firm was filing them in Delaware and a former Biden aide was lobbying against the bill, USA Today reported.

• Senator Biden helped the credit-card industry win passage of a law making it harder for consumers to file for bankruptcy protection, at the same time his son Hunter represented one of the largest companies seeking the changes, The New York Times reported.

• Sen. Barack Obama, the Democratic presidential nominee, sought more than $3.4 million in earmarks for clients of Hunter Biden, and succeeded in getting $192,000 for one of his clients, St. Xavier University in suburban Chicago, The Washington Post reported.

• Hunter Biden and Senator Biden’s brother James were accused in two lawsuits of defrauding a former business partner and an investor of millions of dollars in a hedge fund. Hunter Biden was made president at a salary of $1.2 million despite his inexperience in the hedge-fund industry. A lawsuit filed by their former partner said the deal was crafted to get Hunter Biden out of the lobbying business because his father was worried about its impact on his presidential run, a charge Senator Biden denied, according to The Washington Post.

Major newspapers have reported some of these stories, but they have been mostly buried inside the papers, and certainly not akin to the media saturation bombing accorded the child of the GOP candidate. Yes, sex sells! But clearly, one of the problems in Washington — and in our state capitals — is that special interests with powerful connections often drive the agenda against the public good.

Whether this says anything about Senator Biden’s ability to lead — he strongly defends his positions and says he would have taken them regardless of his son — the subject certainly seems worthy of public discussion — maybe at least as much as the mistakes of Governor Palin’s daughter. Let us hope that Senators John McCain and Barack Obama speak to the ethical questions posed by the rapid expansion of the lobbyist complex in Washington.