Steve Abrams throws his weight around again

Wacky school board member Steve Abrams is getting ugly again - this time by suing to prevent a County Council member from running for state attorney general.

Abrams, a Republican candidate for state comptroller, filed suit to prevent Democrat Tom Perez from running for state attorney general.

Apparently he thinks Perez is going to win. "If I'm elected comptroller, the attorney general is my lawyer," Abrams tells the Washington Times. "I want to make sure the attorney general is the one who follows the law, not the one who makes the law. It's just a quaint notion that I have."

There are differences of opinion over whether Perez is legally able to run, as Maryland law dictates that an attorney general must have practiced law in the state for 10 years, and Perez only passed the Maryland bar in 2001. Perez argues he's been practicing law in the state much longer, having been a federal prosecutor who tried cases in Maryland. Outgoing Maryland Attorney General Joseph Curran, a Democrat, isued a no-surprise opinion that his fellow Democrat could run.

The Maryland Bar Association says they're full of it, so Abrams sued to prevent Perez from running.

Abrams certainly may have a point. Maryland state politics are so dirty that a lawsuit might be in order. But Abrams is the last person with the moral standing to make such a case, given his efforts to prevent the county Inspector General from having ANY oversight authority of the county public school system and the school board.

When raised at the state level, the Attorney General gave a decision that fully pleased no one, but pointedly did repudiate Abrams' efforts to deny financial investigative authority to the Inspector General.