Updated 11:25 a.m. March 29, with House voting results.

Alabama Senate Boss Del Marsh is everything one might want in a leader.

He's independently wealthy, politically secure, smart, savvy, and he looks swell in a suit.

Imagine what he could do if he cared about the people of Alabama, and not just a powerful few.

Imagine.

But then, you might as well imagine a pink elephant flying across the Alabama sky. It's about as likely.

On the day Marsh adjourned the Alabama Senate so members could attend the funeral of Milton McGregor, a man the feds accused of buying and selling legislators as if they were the Amazon Deal of the Day, Marsh brought them back to bully through a so-called "economic development" bill that would give a select group of fat cats a pathway around the ethics law.

The irony would be amusing, if the consequence weren't so dire.

Marsh, with help from 14 other senators who passed the bill by the slimmest of margins - 15-14-1 - ignored Republicans like Trip Pittman and Dick Brewbaker, who warned HB317 was a wolf in the wool that would come back to bite its supporters on election day. He ignored Democrats like Bobby Singleton and Hank Sanders, who pointed out that the problem the bill is supposed to fix was not a problem at all.

Until it passes. Then it's a problem.

One Republican said he'd never seen a bill pushed so desperately in the Senate. Ever. Not because it helps the people of Alabama, but because it helps an elite few protect their own assets and their own behinds.

It is disguised, in a cunning bit of subterfuge, as an "economic development" bill.

Holy words. But holey words.

Alabama Senate President Pro Tempore Del Marsh.

The bill was pushed by Commerce Secretary Greg Canfield and companies that didn't like the way lobbyists and principals - those who pay lobbyists - were dragged into the trial of former House Speaker Mike Hubbard, a Marsh pal whose conviction on ethics charges shook Alabama's political world.

The whole thing was dreamed up as a way to make sure those companies - everybody from Harbert to Great Southern Wood and others -- won't be dragged in again.

Bipartisan opposition to the bill forced it to Wednesday, which was expected to be the session's last day. Changes and compromises were offered, but the bill stubbornly refused to address real concerns that it would leave a Hubbard-sized hole in the ethics law. It would exempt "economic development professionals" from having to register or abide by the rules lobbyist must follow.

So call yourself an economic developer, and you're off the hook. No matter what you really are.

The House of Representatives this morning, after some debate, concurred with the Senate, giving the bill final passage.

"This piece of legislation creates a massive loophole in the ethics law," Rep. Chris England argued. "It creates a subset of people who can lobby without having to register as lobbyists."

He warned that lawmakers would regret supporting it.

"This is an 'I don't want to come back to the Legislature' bill," he said. "The horse you rode in on is the horse you'll ride out on."

But the House voted 52-22, with 22 abstentions, to send it on to Gov. Kay Ivey for her signature. She will likely give it.

She'll say it is about jobs, and many Alabamians will buy it. And she'll steer the ship of state into the cliffs of corruption.

Marsh will say the same, and Attorney General Steve Marshall - raking in the campaign contributions from companies that were dragged into the Hubbard fiasco - will look the other way.

They will all be complicit.

They could stand for honesty and integrity, and the good people of Alabama, but they don't.

They stand, like butlers for the Big Mules, to do the bidding of a select few. They are not leaders. Nor are they servants to the public or the promise of righteous government.

The Senate vote on HB317

They are slaves to special interests, to laws that protect a powerful few. In the holy name of jobs.

They can put on fine clothes and look a lot like leaders. But they don't work for you.

You'd be better represented by that elephant.

John Archibald's column appears in The Birmingham News, the Huntsville Times, the Mobile Register and AL.com. Write him at jarchibald@al.com.