You would not lose a bet at the Caucus Room, the watering hole for power lobbyists, by wagering that the most dysfunctional agency in Washington is the Federal Election Commission. For years, far too many commission members have put their partisan loyalties far above that of the public interest.

The dysfunction has now reached the point where commission members are routinely ignoring the recommendations of their staff investigators rather than enforce the nation’s election laws. This was the case last month when the commission overrode a staff finding and voted to close its investigation into the highly questionable $96,000 payment to Senator John Ensign’s former lover and her outraged husband.

The payment, which looked to many like hush money, came by way of Mr. Ensign’s parents who pronounced it an innocent gift. But staff findings reported by Eric Lichtblau of The Times said documentation pointed to the money being an out-and-out severance payment to Cynthia and Douglas Hampton, two Ensign staffers hurriedly dismissed after the senator’s affair with Mrs. Hampton became public.

Severance money would constitute an illegal campaign contribution. But the commission spared Mr. Ensign further investigation, just as the Justice Department did this month in closing its criminal inquiry, prompting complaints that the agency has become wary of investigating political figures. This leaves the matter with the Senate ethics committee, a notoriously inert panel.