Republican Mike Hubbard and Democrat John Knight have teamed up for a new "accountability" measure.

Which is like Wile E. Coyote and the Roadrunner (You pick which is which) banding together in a hostile takeover of the ACME Corp.

What does this year's legislative odd couple have in common?

Self preservation, baby.

Hubbard, of course, is the Alabama House Speaker facing 23 felony charges of using his office for personal gain. It's unclear whether Knight is himself facing a probe, but the train wreck surrounding Alabama State University, where he was long employed, has certainly been under the lens. What is clear is that Knight lashed out at that probe as "a fishing expedition," and he fears it will reach toward him or his friends.

So now Hubbard and Knight -- joined by willing patsy Mac McCutcheon -- want to pass a bill that would allow the leadership of the Legislature to appoint a paid committee that would review spending by agencies - like the Attorney General's office or the Examiners of Public Accounts - to make sure they are spending money ... wisely.

These foxes ought to call HB257 the Henhouse Accountability Measure. Just imagine what comes next.

Mr. Attorney General you have too many silly grand juries, raising rabble about these fine men and women. Stop it. Go out and put a speed trap out on highway 47 instead!

Or more to the point:

If you keep looking at us, you won't have money to look at anything at all.

This is not how government is supposed to work, unless We the People really want to roll out the red carpet for unbridled power for the already powerful.

Rep. John Knight and House Speaker Mike Hubbard

In a matter of five years political leaders in Montgomery have stopped raving about ways to stamp out the culture of corruption, and have begun implementing ways that could stamp out the investigation of corruption.

And it is not just this atrocious power-grabbing bill. The Legislature is also considering a doozy that could make it easier to pull off the type of bribery immortalized in the Great Jefferson County Sewer Collapse.

Call it the Bribery-Made-Easy Bill, sponsored in the Senate by Sen. Paul Sanford and in the House by Rep. Mark Tuggle.

It would - in the name of "Fiscal Responsibility and Economic Development," cripple the time-tested bid process for awarding public building jobs, like schools or city halls and other taxpayer-funded works. It would let prequalified construction managers negotiate deals on more projects, and is considered by many smaller contractors as a ploy to benefit the biggest and most powerful builders in their business.

How bad an idea is that?

It was just 16 months ago that Jefferson County emerged from what was once the nation's largest municipal bankruptcy. It was caused, in part, because contractors paid bribes to public officials to get around the bid law.

Dozens of arrests in recent years came from corruption in the two-year college system, where non-bid construction managers made massive attempts to thwart the bid law.

Even the ASU investigation involves a construction manager using change orders to avoid the law.

This is Alabama, where recent events teach us that we ought to know better.

It is stunning now that in Montgomery, where most legislators won office by swearing to clean up that town, they are now moving bills that could:

Cripple the bid law.

Hamper the ability to investigate wrongs and prosecute public officials.

Eliminate oversight of those in power.

We're in the middle of a program to keep the powerful powerful. And to keep everybody else off their backs.