Constantin Querard's Taxpayer-Paid Bootlickers David Gowan, Steve Montenegro, Carl Seel, Steve Smith, and Kelly Townsend Do Their Master's Bidding

The bill also places restrictions on warrants for financial information to be used in criminal cases, once again giving the suspect a heads up that he or she is a target of an investigation. Though with a warrant, the target would have to be notified within 90 days.

With either a warrant or a subpoena, a financial institution would not be allowed to release a customer's records until the government agency involved "certifies in writing that it has complied with this article."

By which time, any scam artist worth his salt would be taking a sun bath poolside in Puerto Vallarta, sucking back margaritas by the bucketful.

Which explains why the Arizona Attorney General's Office has objected to the bill in the past, as has the Arizona Department of Public Safety and the Arizona Corporation Commission.

Also, the Arizona Department of Economic Security seems worried that the bill, as is, could hamper DES' ability to chase down money owed by deadbeat dads.

Shamelessly, Querard admitted that his bill will cause various government agencies headaches.

"I have no doubt that if you pass this bill, it will at some level make prosecution a little more difficult," he told the committee.

But this is about Querard and his needs. Screw law enforcement.

See, Querard has been trying to get this bill through a committee for years as a response to a scandal he endured from 2004-2006 when the Arizona Citizens Clean Elections Commission, the AG's Office, and attorney Tom Ryan, representing then Maricopa County Republican Chairman Tom Liddy, exposed Querard's shenanigans for all the world to see.

In front of the committee, Querard was fairly open about his reasons for wanting this bill to become law, describing that bygone investigation into his activities as "a fishing trip through my business," one that made "600 pages of my personal life" subject to public-records requests.

Querard portrayed himself as a victim, but the scandal was wholly of his own making. After all, despite his conservative pretensions, Querard is overly fond of milking the public tit in the form of Clean Elections cash, which, like all gub'mint handouts, comes with strings attached.

Naturally, Clean Elections and the AG's Office are obligated to investigate allegations of wrongdoing. And Querard exposed himself to an inquiry when in 2004 he used a mailer that looked like it came from the county GOP in order to obtain thousands of responses for early ballot requests.

Reportedly, Querard sold the data he mined from those returned mailers to his clients. County GOP chair Liddy accused Querard of "money laundering." Querard sued for defamation, opening himself up to further scrutiny.

"I'm the one that subpoenaed [Querard's] records first," Ryan told me when I called for a comment. "I subpoenaed the records as part of the underlying claim when he sued Liddy.

"I said, 'Fine, truth is an absolute defense [to a libel claim]. Let's take a look at [Querard's] bank records.' Then I turned them over to Clean Elections."

Ultimately, Querard lost his defamation suit, big-time, and the local press revealed Querard for what he is, a veritable font of slime.

Or, in other words, a successful political consultant.

Republican legislator and CQ puppet Colette Rosati was revealed to be a major ditz. CQ told her what committee assignments to seek, who to back for speaker, and whether or not she should send out Christmas cards.

Rosati even admitted to giving Querard a blank check once. An AG investigator found that she had sent Querard lump sums of cash without disclosing what the cash was for.

Clean Elections dinged her for $20,000, lowered the fine to $5,000 and finally allowed her to pay $2,500.

Another of CQ's candidates, Representative David Burnell Smith, was forced to resign because of Clean Elections violations.

Despite all this fertile ground to plow, the AG's Office under Terry "Do Nothing" Goddard, produced zero indictments.