ONE 'DRUG CZAR': PENCE

Politicians tend to be condemned harshly if they don't fulfill
campaign promises. But perhaps, especially in Kentucky, there should
be an amnesty program that rewards successful candidates if they do
not follow through on really bad ideas that were pillars of their platforms.

Case in point: Attorney General Greg Stumbo again vowed after taking
office Monday that he will carry out his pledge to create a new
Kentucky Bureau of Investigation under his direction (of course) to
combat drugs.

It would be bad enough if the KBI's best prospect was to be merely a
useless appendage. And, indeed, Mr. Stumbo's contribution is unlikely
to rise even to the level of being duplicative.

Gov. Ernie Fletcher has assigned Lt. Gov. Steve Pence, a former U.S.
attorney who will serve as justice secretary, to oversee the state's
anti-drug efforts. Mr. Pence will supervise the Kentucky State Police,
the only state agency with which the federal Drug Enforcement
Administration coordinates its work, and he will clearly be the
state's "drug czar." Given his solid grasp of the roles of
enforcement, education and treatment in fighting illegal drug use,
that's a good thing.

The real danger in Mr. Stumbo's scheme is that he will get in the way.
It is not difficult to imagine the Attorney General's cohort of Barney
Fifes compromising professional state police and DEA investigations.
And when problems and disappointments arise - as they inevitably will
in tackling as persistent a curse as drug abuse - the temptation for
the ambitious Mr. Stumbo to deflect criticism with unconstructive
finger-pointing may prove irresistible.

Mr. Stumbo says "there's plenty of this [drug] problem to go around."
But such thinking reduces the tragedy of the drug trade to an element
of the political spoils system.

The best hope for arresting the predators who manufacture and sell
dangerous drugs and for freeing Kentuckians from the grip of addiction
lies in a unified, focused and sophisticated state attack.

Mr. Pence has been too diplomatic to say so, but he is by far the
better person to lead such an effort in Kentucky.

If Mr. Stumbo persists in trying to set up his own anti-drug shop, the
legislature should respond by denying him the means to do so.