Where is Jiminy Cricket when we need him?

From his perch on Pinocchio’s shoulder, he offered sage advice about right and wrong to the wooden puppet to help him grow a conscience and become a real boy.

Too bad Mr. Cricket is not around to help many of today’s politicians turn into real men and women.

Of course, Mr. Cricket had magical help. When Pinocchio lied, his wooden nose grew. If that really happened to people, we would never have to chop down another tree to meet our lumber needs for construction or paper.

Instead of having crickets on their shoulders for moral guidance, many politicians seem to have spiders urging them to spin webs. They find an element of truth to attach a thread and weave a story that leaves out honesty and often includes venom.

One such story claimed Barack Obama is Muslim because he attended school in Indonesia and his father came from Africa. The assertion that Obama is Muslim is totally false.

Another story twisted John Kerry’s Vietnam service record and branded him a coward. His opponents ducked the war entirely.

These spiders are also masters of embroidery. They take a true story and embellish the facts until it becomes fiction.

Hillary Clinton visited Bosnia but she never ducked for cover under a spray of bullets. Sarah Palin governs a state across the Bering Strait from Russia, but the proximity did not give her foreign policy experience.

John McCain, who opposes embryonic “farming,” still supports embryonic stem cell research — despite Obama’s claim to the contrary.

Worst of all, the spiders in the current administration wove an entire Persian carpet, which we bought for a dear price, out of nonexistent weapons of mass destruction, which we bought for a dear price. Like a rug, that story still “lies” there.

Most of us do not believe in magic, including talking crickets and malicious spiders. We consider ourselves honest and upright.

Still, we accept partial truths as a part of the political process and we magically expect politicians to become fully truthful once elected. We are living a fairy tale larger than Walt Disney could have imagined.

Holding a public office does not give a person integrity and credibility; in fact, power often corrupts. It takes a lifetime of honesty in words and actions to build trust, and only a moment to destroy it.

The financial crisis gripping our country shows we are suffering a confidence and credibility crisis also.

For eight years, the current administration spun stories urging us into immediate, reckless action. They assured us the economy was great until the day we were told it was not.

They warned that we had less than a week to fix it by giving them unprecedented powers. After two weeks of arguing, a modified bill passed, yet the economy remains in turmoil because we lack trustworthy and knowledgeable leadership to steer us through the emergency.

We need people in government we can trust. Trust is vital in all our relationships.

We do not want our kids telling us they are going to the movies if they are just driving by the theater on the way to a wild party. If our spouse is at a late business meeting, we want to feel secure that it is not in a motel room.

When our boss tells us the company is in great shape, we do not want to get fired an hour later.

Believability is earned through a history of honesty, and there is nothing honest about partial truths.

We have to stop accepting this behavior, and we have to do our part. We need to listen with a critical ear and we have an obligation to check facts. It is not difficult to find the truth; Factcheck.org is a reliable resource, as are many newspapers.

Democracy only gives back what we put in it. We need to leave spinning to actual arachnids, but it would not hurt any of us to have a Jiminy Cricket on our shoulder.

No issue affects us more than honesty, so let your conscience be your guide as you vote.

Denise Tiller is an actuary, author and mother. She lives in Stilwell. To reach Midwest Voices columnists, write to the author c/o the Editorial Page, The Kansas City Star, 1729 Grand Blvd., Kansas City, MO 64108. Or send e-mail to .