By Star-Ledger Editorial Board

The most powerful man in New Jersey's Assembly, Speaker Vincent Prieto, has three public jobs and is now consulting on the side for private clients whose names he will not reveal.

He sees nothing wrong with this.

“I can hold my head up high and say that everything I do is ethical above and beyond anybody," he told Politicker NJ.

His defense? That he's not the only one doing it. With a part-time legislature, Prieto tells us, this is "the nature of the beast."

Give us a break. Yes, lawmakers have to find other ways of supporting themselves. Many earn just $49,000 a year. But unlike Prieto, they don't all have three public jobs, along with secret clients from a private consulting gig.

One of his clients, the Star-Ledger's Matt Friedman has confirmed, is a major South Jersey political donor.

That client, the only one we know of so far, is a firm that employs Sen. James Beach (D-Camden) and is owned by a political donor who supports South Jersey powerbroker George Norcross's favorite candidates.

Norcross denies any involvement in this. But if he were to ask Prieto to quash a bill he doesn't like, will the Speaker really be in a position to say no?

Prieto's lack of transparency has nothing to do with New Jersey having a part-time legislature. He is not exposing himself to new conflicts of interest out of financial necessity, either.

This consulting gig is on top of the more than $200,000 a year he earns from his three public jobs. He gets paid for days he doesn't show up for work because he's in Trenton, and will collect multiple public pensions. He is enriching himself off his public position.

And if everything Prieto does is "ethical above and beyond anybody," why refuse to name his clients before his financial disclosure statements are due, which isn’t until next May? What is there to hide?