A year ago in this space, I was sharply critical of Attorney General Jay Nixon. After prefacing these remarks by saying I like the guy personally, I related that I had written something favorable about him back in 1988 when he first ran for statewide office. A 32-year-old freshman state senator, he challenged Jack Danforth, then senior senator from Missouri. Nixon thought enough of my comments to include them in his campaign brochure that year. Bolstered by my friendly comments, a spirited Nixon campaign fell beneath a Danforth steamroller that year and was flattened, losing every county.

My criticisms of last summer focused on what is perhaps his most consistent feature: a shameless Nixon thirst for headlines, a quality that has since been remarked on by a widening circle of Jefferson City observers, both metropolitan newspapers and by Democrats such as my colleague, Senate President Pro Tem Jim Mathewson of Sedalia. Nixon is "the biggest newshound I've ever seen," Mathewson said of his former colleague.

This is not a hanging offense, as I observed last summer, more in amusement than anything else. Still, it was and is worthy of being remarked upon. I observed that the attorney general is not primarily an investigative office and that he had little or no jurisdiction for many of the high-profile "investigations" he was launching. I made the commonplace observation that criminal investigations and a decision to prosecute are the province not of the attorney general, but of the county prosecutor in whose locale the alleged offense takes place. I further asserted that knowledgeable folks within the law enforcement and political communities, both Democrat and Republican, were beginning to laugh at our attorney general.

Nixon, of course, telephoned me in an agitated state. After informing me that his staff used our newspaper to line his office bird cage, he asked whether he could have space for a reply. I told him we definitely wanted him to reply. A few days later we printed his stinging rebuke. The state's highest ranking lawyer was in high dudgeon indeed, asserting, "I will not look the other way" when corruption is present, blah, blah, blah.

Some wise person taught me years ago that sometimes the best answer is no answer. I didn't reply. Jay Nixon has spent the last 12 months confirming the wisdom of that remark, just as he confirms the original indictment I made of his stewardship.

Comes now the Kansas City Business Journal in its July 28-Aug. 3 issue. "Latest loss raises questions about Nixon's know-how," screams the headline over a lengthy analysis piece by reporter Daniel Margolies. Here's the lead, which precedes a discussion of a string of five devastating embarrassments for the AG:

"As the state's top law enforcement official, Attorney General Jay Nixon is expected to know the law. But more than halfway through his four-year term, he has bungled several highly publicized cases and may have personally fallen short of the exacting standards he has set for others."

This past week, for the second time in five weeks, a judge has laughed him out of court in one of his highly publicized, made-for-headlines cases. As observed here last summer, he had no jurisdiction. Before that, three prosecutors, all fellow Democrats, had laughed him out of their offices when he went there, begging that they give him criminal jurisdiction to prosecute House Speaker Bob Griffin.

Like President Bill Clinton, Jay Nixon probably wishes he were doing what he does best, back in a campaign, issuing press releases, canoeing down the Missouri River (a 1992 campaign stunt -- something about the environment, if memory serves) and making wild charges. It sure beats the tough work of actually governing.

~Peter Kinder is the associate publisher of the Southeast Missourian and a state senator from Cape Girardeau.