Even as downtown Seattle bus commuters are about to lose their Ride Free Area, Republican attorney general Rob McKenna continues to cart himself around in a free car... as he has for the past eight years!

State Attorney General Rob McKenna, whose job includes investigating complaints against auto dealers, has long enjoyed use of a car supplied and subsidized by the Honda Auto Center of Bellevue, whose president is a substantial contributor.

Nearly eight years ago, when McKenna started running for AG, Honda Auto Center first made an in-kind contribution of a leased Honda car to the campaign of the then-King County councilman.

Sweet! Though as SeattlePI.com's Joel Connelly points out, maybe not so sweet for the consumers who McKenna is sworn to protect from deceptive business practices... or for voters, who are faced with yet another example of McKenna's stunning hypocrisy:

Citing public employee unions, McKenna has argued that a conflict of interest exists with Democrats holding the governor's office. Union leaders sit down at one side of the table, across from politicians they worked to elect — and can turn around and defeat if they are displeased.

"You cannot have true collective bargaining" with such a dependency, McKenna told the Shoreline Caucus, saying that if he sits in the statehouse, "This is a governor who does not owe anything to people sitting on the other side of the table."

Shouldn't the same hold true for an attorney general sitting across the table from auto dealers accused of deceptive advertising practices?

Yeah, shouldn't it, Rob? Joel wants to know, and unlike me, he's a real journalist.