EDITORIAL COUNCIL STINK BOMB TERM LIMITS PLAN KEEPS GETTING WORSE.

THE more we learn about the Los Angeles City Council's plan to water down term limits, the more it stinks.

It was bad enough that the council got the League of Women Voters and the L.A. Chamber of Commerce to propose the measure, and that in stooging for the council, they actually hired a firm that represents lobbyists to draft the legislation that supposedly cracks down on lobbyists.

And it was bad enough that the measure was cloaked in bogus ``ethics reform'' language that has nothing to do with reforming ethics and everything to do with confusing voters into voting for this ill-begotten scheme.

It was already unthinkably bad when we knew that the measure would allow current council members to stick around for four more years while they accrue $1 million apiece in salary and benefits.

But now, topping off this monumental act of cynicism and selfishness, we learn that the effect of the legislation may be not only to keep the current members in power, but to also bring back the dinosaurs they replaced.

How's that for irony?

The implementation of council term limits in 1993 brought the first infusion of new blood to the council in decades. And now the new council members -- who owe their very jobs to term limits -- are working to give themselves another term, and then, perhaps, bring back the old guard.

Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa could have tossed this stink bomb to the ash heap and saved voters the trouble in November.

But he went along with it, saying he's always opposed term limits. In so doing, he squandered yet another chance to put the council in its proper place and, at the same time, saved his own pals in City Hall insiders culture a lot of money they'll be wasting on this phony scheme.