Thomas Jefferson, legislator and farmer. Photo by Kevin H.

When it comes to talking about D.C. government ethics, it’s easy to beat up on one group — the councilmembers with second jobs.

As we’ve long known, our local legislators are allowed to take on outside employment; councilmembers Jack Evans (D-Ward 2), Mary Cheh (D-Ward 3) and David Catania (I-At Large) currently do. But along with those second jobs comes regular accusations that they’re not putting enough into what they were elected to do, that they’re abusing an already well-paying job ($125,000 a year) and that second jobs are bound to cause conflicts of interest.

As part of the effort to reform the council’s ethics, Councilmember Vincent Orange (D-At Large) moved this year to make his colleagues full-time employees. (It’s not likely to go anywhere.) But during yesterday’s marathon council hearing on ethics, Evans, Cheh and Catania passionately raised their voices in defense of their second jobs, invoking history and the real world in arguing for why they’re better people for their outside gigs.

Evans said that the the idea of the citizen legislator went back to the country’s founding, arguing that not only was Thomas Jefferson a statesman and politician, but also a farmer. (Evans himself isn’t a farmer by night, but rather a lawyer with Patton Boggs.)

Catania seemed to take offense at the insinuation that he did anything part-time, saying that he had two full-time jobs. (Outside of the D.C. Council, he works for MC Dean.) And without mentioning names, Catania said that he did more than some “full-time” councilmembers, that he enjoyed working a job where a single mistake could get him fired and that his colleagues that made a life out of being legislators were less likely to take chances and be independent-minded.

Cheh returned to the hearing to similarly mount a defense of her own second job (law professor at George Washington University), saying that councilmembers need to keep a foot in the real-world. Echoing Catania, Cheh said that since she didn’t need her council job to get by, she would be more effective in identifying solutions to tough problems — whether or not they’re politically palatable.

They certainly have a point — full-time legislators don’t necessarily equate with ethical legislators, as the Post’s Mike DeBonis argued in September. There is the matter of self-interest, though: in 2010, Cheh took in $280,000 in additional income, while Evans made $190,000 and Catania $120,000.