Over at Townhall.com, Paul Jacob relates the dirty details of the background to the Oklahoma Supreme Court’s decision to uphold the full $84,000 annual pension of multi-indicted former state legislator. (See “Another OK Court Decision?“) The salary of sitting legislators is something less than half that. But Democratic former State Senator Gene Stipe is by his theory “owed” such a hefty payout because he managed to cling to to power in the legislature like a barnacle to Super Glue, occupying seats in the house and senate for a total of 54 years. And despite a state board’s ruling that Stipe forfeited much of his pension because he violated his oath of office, the high court, overruling the board, agrees with him that his guilty pleas are immaterial.

Toward the end of the column, Paul mentions the case’s connection, or non-connection, to the infallibly misapplied investigative prowess of a certain Democratic state attorney general:

Three state supreme court justices sat this case out. Justices Yvonne Kauger and Steven Taylor recused themselves. Taylor cited his exposure to local news coverage about the case. Another justice, James Edmondson, brother of Attorney General Drew Edmondson, disqualified himself without explanation.

Stipe turns out to be a large contributor to Attorney General Edmondson, so it is no surprise that several Oklahomans have wondered out loud why the ever-activist state AG hasn’t been involved in going after all the corruption discovered by federal investigators, including that of solon Stipe. And reporters asked why the AG hadn’t returned a $1,000 contribution from Stipe.

Attorney General Edmondson has a ready reply…well, at least regarding the thousand-dollar check. He explained simply that he hadn’t returned Stipe’s money because there was no conflict of interest, since, after all, he wasn’t investigating Stipe.

Oh.