NO TO STUMBO'S KBI

Clearly Kentucky has real drug problems: all those meth labs, especially in
Western Kentucky; all that prescription drug abuse, mainly in Eastern
Kentucky, and the all-too-familiar drug traffic in cities and suburbs.

But government at all levels (including the federal Drug Enforcement
Administration, U.S. attorneys, the Kentucky State Police and many local
agencies) already has been mobilized. If something more is needed, it could
be the work Lt. Gov. Steve Pence intends to do, pulling together
enforcement, education and rehabilitation efforts statewide.

What's likely to be of minimal value in the drug war, but of great value to
incoming Attorney General Greg Stumbo's political ambitions, is his plan to
create a Kentucky Bureau of Investigations.

Although officially devoted to fighting drugs, the KBI would be most useful
for keeping Mr. Stumbo's name in headlines, where readers frightened by the
methamphetamine and OxyContin news will see it.

You can always argue that more effort would help in the drug war. But, given
all that's under way on that front, Mr. Stumbo could use his time and effort
more effectively in other crucial areas already part of his job.

Consider the deep impact that Ed Hancock made as attorney general, when he
turned deputies Bob Bullock and David Short loose on consumer protection and
environmental regulation. A new Republican administration bent of making the
state business-friendly, and keeping business contributors happy, could
provide lots of targets.

Actually, a KBI could be much worse than "minimally valuable." It could be
downright dangerous. Imagine such an instrument in the hands of an ambitious
pol who knows a lot about the corrupt mechanisms of state politics.

Oops.

Some argue that it's already dangerous for the Kentucky attorney general to
have his staff of investigators running around with badges and guns, their
efforts not particularly well organized or focused. But consider how much
worse it could be some day, with a J. Edgar Hoover type carefully managing
such assets for his own political purposes.

Oops plus.