Texas may (probably does) or may not lead the nation in venal, squalid, plain old roll-in-the-mud rotten government, but it’s certainly number one in lack of shame about it. Consider this (via Juanita’s) from the San Antonio Express-News:

AUSTIN — A Texas official who receives any sum of cash as a gift can satisfy state disclosure laws by reporting the money simply as “currency” without specifying the amount, the Texas Ethics Commission reiterated Monday …

“The question here is whether the description of a gift of cash of over $250 is required to include the value of the gift,” the Ethics Commission opinion said in part. “The term ‘description’ is not defined in Chapter 572 of the Government Code, nor is it defined anywhere else in the Government Code.”