Noel says he has no conflict of interest because he gets a set salary from the district, and even if it gets $1 million annual payments from Tilton's group, he won't make any more money. Thus, he doesn't have a financial interest in the nuclear power plant, and thus no conflict under legislative rules.

Tilton says the public utilities committee he sits on — and Noel co-chairs — is only looking at helping a public utility build a nuclear power plant in Utah. Since TPD is not a licensed public utility, he has no conflict under legislative rules. Of course, TPD may well sell its nuclear power license to a public utility at some point, but that is not a given.

They both say — with straight faces — that they have no conflict of interests under legislative rules.

If that is true, then Utah lawmakers should do away with their watered-down, ineffective conflict of interest rules.

What good are they — except maybe to trick citizens into believing the Legislature actually has some conflict of interest rules, and thus to shield lawmakers from any claims of having real conflicts of interest?

I mean, come on. If these two guys don't have clear conflicts of interests on Utah developing nuclear power, then legislators are not living in the real world their constituents face each day.

Nationally, Democrats ran a 2006 campaign on corruption in Congress and the GOP-controlled government. Along with other issues, like the Iraq war, it led them to take over both houses of Congress.

But don't expect a similar "anti-corruption" campaign by Democrats in the Utah Legislature. In part, because a number of legislative Democrats, especially in the Senate, have fully joined the good-ol'-boy network — hear no evil, see no evil, speak no evil.

It's true that with a citizen government you are bound to have conflicts of interests — as the ranks are filled by part-time lawmakers who go home to be farmers, insurance agents, cops, lawyers, teachers, bankers and small-business men and women.

And it's true that any conflict of interest rules may by nature have some fuzzy lines.

But Noel's and Tilton's conflicts are not fuzzy.

And the Utah Legislature's conflict of interest rules appear meaningless.

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Deseret Morning News political editor Bob Bernick Jr. may be reached by e-mail at bbjr@desnews.com