Attorney general endorsement -- Stan Lee

If Paul Patton and/or Crit Luallen could look into a fountain of youth, the reflection they'd see staring back at them would be the face of Jack Conway.

Conway is a Democratic political protege of Patton and Luallen, which to us would be valid reason to vote against him even if his opponent was Al Capone.

But when there's a quality candidate like Stan Lee on the Republican side of the ballot, it makes the choice a no-brainer.

We heartily endorse Stan Lee for the attorney general position in Tuesday's election.

Conway left the Patton administration for a failed run against former U.S. Rep. Anne Northup a few years ago and has been practicing law in Louisville since. He epitomizes the liberal big-city trial lawyer of whom many Kentuckians are suspect.

Lee has represented a conservative Lexington district in the Kentucky House of Representatives for several years. Although Conway and his cheering section in the press like to call Lee "out of step" and "radical" and even "wingnut," stack their views on topics of importance to Kentucky up against one another and Lee's views will match those of a majority of Kentuckians, and definitely most of the geographical area of the state.

If you're looking for crossover appeal for Lee, you can find it in the position he's taken on the personnel hiring probe that has plagued Gov. Ernie Fletcher's administration. Lee says he would not have pursued the investigation into the Fletcher administration, but instead would have let the Personnel Board handle complaints of political discrimination in hiring, firing and promotion of state merit employees. Lee's position mirrors exactly the position taken by the Democrat attorney general from 1979-1983: one Steve Beshear, current Democrat candidate for governor, who was AG during a very well-documented time of violations of KRS Chapter 18A, the state's personnel laws.

It's too bad that Republicans didn't have this high-quality of a candidate four years ago, when problematic Jack Wood won the nomination over State Rep. Tim Feeley, and then went on to lose to the better-known but more problematic Greg Stumbo. The GOP voters didn't make that mistake this time. Out of a slate of very well qualified candidates, they selected Lee and their nominee, and if all voters all across the state want an attorney general who's in step with Kentucky values and who will enforce the laws in a non-partisan manner and not use the office as a political weapon with which to crush enemies, they should elect Stan Lee on Tuesday.