We come now to the defense of Bruce Bereano. The top Annapolis lobbyist is the evident target of a law proposed in Towson to prohibit convicted felons from lobbying before the Baltimore County government, the product of his effective advocacy for clients in opposition to a ban on the use of indoor tanning facilities by minors. The unstated implication of the legislation — which is sponsored by Councilman Vincent J. Gardina, who also sponsored the tanning bill — is that Mr. Bereano has continued to act unethically. On the contrary, Mr. Bereano, who was convicted on seven counts of mail fraud in 1994, presently conducts himself no differently — though perhaps more effectively — than many of the other lobbyists who walk the halls of the State House and county courthouses.

Here's what Mr. Bereano did: In the early 1990s, he fraudulently billed several clients $16,000 in supposed entertainment expenses and instead funneled that money through relatives, employees and others into campaign contributions without the clients' knowledge. By the time federal prosecutors made their case, the statute of limitations on campaign finance law violations had run out, so they charged him with mail fraud instead. He was convicted, and after a series of appeals wound up serving a 10-month sentence — five months in a halfway house, five months of home detention — paying a $30,000 fine and losing his law license.

That behavior was clearly wrong. So was a contingency contract he entered into with a client nearly a decade later. The taint of those scandals for several years severely diminished Mr. Bereano's influence — or at least his earning power — in Annapolis. But over time, he has clawed his way back to becoming one of the top-paid advocates in the state capital. There is certainly something unsavory about the way Annapolis so eagerly welcomes back its fallen sons —former Gov. Marvin Mandel and convicted lobbyist Gerry Evans also come to mind — but Mr. Gardina's proposal would do nothing to change that.

What makes Mr. Bereano so effective is not the cutting of ethical corners but the way he has so thoroughly injected himself into the Maryland political community. Lobbyists routinely hang around with lawmakers they're trying to influence and attend their fundraisers, but Mr. Bereano attends them all. He knows exactly what points will be most effective with each legislator he's trying to influence, and he makes those arguments with vigor.

Mr. Bereano is not what is known as a white hat lobbyist. He typically doesn't go in for representing what most would think of as noble causes and instead has a roster of corporate clients who pay him to pursue special interests that do not necessarily coincide with the public interest. If you had a nickel for every time The Sun's editorial page has disagreed with a position Mr. Bereano has taken on behalf of his clients, you'd be nearly as rich as he is. But barring convicted felons from lobbying in Towson doesn't mean the interests of the tanning industry — with whom we also, for the record, disagree — wouldn't have been able to kill Mr. Gardina's legislation through the use of some hired gun. If it wasn't Mr. Bereano, it just would have been someone else.

Mr. Bereano has threatened to sue the county if it passes the proposed ban, claiming it would violate his First Amendment rights. That contention is not particularly persuasive, though this is hardly the first time Mr. Bereano has tried to argue a pair of twos into a full house. If barring felons from voting is constitutional, so must be barring them from lobbying. But the stronger argument is that it's not a particularly meaningful standard. Just as it would affect someone like Mr. Bereano, who carries a lobbying-related conviction, so might it affect someone like a former gang member who lobbies for youth programs.

Mr. Gardina claims his concern is for making sure that those who present information to the County Council are of a sufficiently high ethical standard. If so, the better approach is the one taken by Gov. Martin O'Malley, who pledged during the 2006 campaign that he would not meet with convicted felon lobbyists if he was elected. If you don't like a lobbyist, don't listen to him. (Mr. O'Malley did recently attend a meeting in which Mr. Evans was representing the Fraternal Order of Police and the Maryland Transportation Authority Police, but the ban appears to still be in effect as far as Mr. Bereano is concerned.)

If Mr. Gardina — or any other lawmaker — really wants to clean up the cozy environment of special-interest politics in which Mr. Bereano thrives, the place to start would be establishing public financing of election campaigns. Lobbyists would have a much harder time schmoozing politicians at fundraisers if there were no fundraisers. Going after Mr. Bereano is a much easier shot, but it would do nothing to ensure that the government is more ethical.