GAMING COMMISSION SHOULD PUT UP A FIGHT

A big-time St. Louis gambling lawyer who has long been one of the state's top Democratic fund raisers has pleaded guilty and is probably headed to the penitentiary, after an Oct. 3 sentencing, for bilking his law partners out of a $500,000 bonus paid him by Station Casinos Inc. on top of $4 million in legal fees.

This is almost certainly just the tip of the iceberg on what could be an enormous scandal reaching deep into our state's political establishment.

The Missouri Gaming Commission issued subpoenas to Station Casino executives to testify, and the subpoenas were ignored.

The commission responded with a move to revoke Station's gambling license, a move that could easily take more than a year. During last week's veto session in Jefferson City, state Sen. Steve Ehlmann, R-St. Charles, offered a resolution calling on the commission to get a judge to enforce their own subpoena and get the testimony forthwith.

Ehlmann's rather tame resolution triggered a remarkable display of intra-party rancor and fierce opposition from senior Democratic senators. Missourians are entitled to wonder whether there might be a link between this Democratic opposition and the receipt, by the Senate Democratic campaign committee, of $23,000 in contributions from Station Casinos.

Ehlmann wonders what the disgraced lawyer did to earn a half-million dollar bonus. Good question.

An even better question is why the Missouri Gaming Commission, now embarrassing our state once again, doesn't think enough of its own subpoena to get a judge to enforce it as any lawyer could tell them how to do. What about it, commission members?