Nobody's so naive as to think the position of New Mexico attorney general is above politics; it's elective, after all, so back-scratching of friends and pummeling of rivals is to be expected from that office. But Gary King lately has been dragging his public trust to political depths previously unplumbed — and certainly beneath his once-praiseworthy self.

He and his operatives so completely fumbled the prosecution of ex-Secretary of State Rebecca Vigil-Girón, accused of misusing public money, that the courts threw him off the case. It's now in the hands of Albuquerque district attorney Kari Brandenburg.

And while King was taking his sweet time acting against corrupt manipulation of the State Investment Council and the Educational Retirement Board, former Republican state Sen. Victor Marshall took on the whistleblower case of the ERB's former chief investment officer, whistleblower Frank Foy — as a private attorney acting on behalf of the people of New Mexico.

Marshall, who also serves as legal counsel to this paper, lately has found King belatedly butting in on the act. Is he trying to foul up the case against a bunch of power-abusing Democrats who might include former Gov. Bill Richardson?

One of the defendants in the whistleblower action, former ERB chairman Bruce Malott, was campaign treasurer for King's failed congressional run in 2004. As recently as last year, Malott was filing campaign reports for King.

That's clearly a conflict of interest, and Marshall argues with good reason, that King should recuse himself from the case. We'd go a step further, suggesting that he consider recusing himself from office, where he's been less than intensively attentive to his duties between trips abroad — but that's another story ...

His involvement in the investment-council case comes off as running interference for several Democrats who abused their power — and that might yet include former Gov. Bill Richardson, whom Malott also served as campaign treasurer. There's at least the appearance of the Democratic AG as a convenient accessory for fellow Democrats.

As Frank Foy puts it, "Gary King has a lot of questions to answer about his ties to Bruce Malott and some of the other people who were involved in pay-to-play."

"He's trying to cover up his links to the people who cheated the state out of hundreds of millions of dollars."

Then there's King's relationship with State Auditor Hector Balderas, a Democrat but obviously not beloved of the King team: He has turned a deaf ear to Balderas' call for further and faster action on what the auditor says is contract fraud in the Corrections Department and at the state's housing authority. Instead, King's operatives are persecuting Balderas — on the basis of what appear to be groundless and/or petty accusations of misbehavior.

It was Balderas himself who, in the interest of openness in office, forwarded unfounded "hot line" complaints from a disgruntled employee that Balderas had used workers in his office as baby-sitters and (gasp!) put in a time-clock system to keep employees from goofing off. King's office responded with a widespread fishing expedition that included offhand queries about whether Balderas has been defensive-driving certified to drive a state car. He has.

Balderas has offered over and over to meet with King or his deputies about the complaints, so far to no avail.

The Balderas case is being treated as a hot one — while readily provable corruption, uncovered by Balderas, goes ignored? This is crazy.

There's a political odor growing in Gary King's office. He's overdue for airing it out.