Senate mischief

The Courier-Journal addresses Katie Stine's latest stunt:

The Kentucky Senate continues down its merry path of irrelevancy and partisan mischief-making. On Wednesday the Republican majority approved a terrible piece of spite legislation that would make the office of attorney general non-partisan.

When Sen. Katie Stine, R-Southgate, introduced the legislation a few weeks ago, she lamely suggested that because of the importance of the job — the state’s chief legal officer — making the post non-partisan would eliminate any taint of partisanship. What Sen. Stine failed to say is that Republicans have been singularly unsuccessful in electing attorneys general in modern times. Even under Republican governors, the state has elected Democrats as attorney general. And the last time that happened, Attorney General (now House Speaker) Greg Stumbo made life miserable for Gov. Ernie Fletcher, as well he should have.

...No state in America has a non-partisan elected attorney general. And there is good reason for that. Politics is not bad, and neither are political parties. Particularly in these times, when the cleavage between Democrats and Republicans is so striking, voters want and need to know how their candidates line up.