COUNTY ROAD AND BRIDGE SALES TAX NEEDS AIRING: AIDE'S REALITY CHECK IS TRIP TO LITTLE ROCK

For David Watkins, the reality check meant a trip home to Little Rock. Until a couple of weeks ago, Mr. Watkins was an aide to President Clinton. His estimation of that job included scouting golf courses for the president and using the chief executive's helicopter to carry out this duty. Discovered, he resigned and, after some humiliating inducement, offered to pay American taxpayers more than $13,000 for his privileged mode of transportation. Though all now seems settled, Americans are left with another bad taste in their mouth of a public servant assuming ungranted perquisites and remaining out of touch with the people paying the tab.

In a more isolated circumstance, David Watkins might just be perceived as another millionaire trying his hand at public service and failing to grasp the limitations that accompany that role. The privileges corporate executives reward themselves in the private sector (Mr. Watkins made his fortune in advertising) do not translate cleanly into the taxpayer-supported arena of government. Thus, when he and others commissioned two presidential helicopters for a Maryland golf outing, it might not have registered that ordinary citizens would regard this behavior as extravagant.

For those citizens, though, such conduct seems all too common. They remember John Sununu borrowing presidential aircraft in the Bush administration for a visit to his dentist. More recently, they have absorbed allegations against the powerful congressman Dan Rostenkowski, who is accused (among other things) of hiring a photographer for his daughter's wedding and putting it on the public's tab.

The David Watkins episode gives Americans one more reason to doubt the supposed connection between Washington and the rest of America.