IT'S HARD TO DECIDE WHICH IS MORE DISTASTEFUL

For days last month, residents of St. Louis expressed their outrage -- through letters to the editor and radio talk shows -- over an incident in which an alderwoman allegedly urinated in the aldermanic chamber -- behind a curtain of blankets and a tablecloth held by aides -- during a floor debate over a redistricting plan.

Alderwoman Irene Smith had been told that she would have to yield in her efforts along with three other board members to hold up the debate if she left the chamber to use a restroom.

If Smith really did what Alderman Thomas Bauer claims in the complaint he filed with police, it's difficult to decide which is worse: An alderwoman who would do something so tasteless, or rules that prohibit elected officials from tending to rather basic human needs in the course of a heated debate.