From the public employees as errand boys file.

The Albany Times Union editorializes on State Controller (the person who’s job it is to assure us that public funds are used properly) Alan Hevesi’s latest misuse of public employees in Mr. Hevesi, again:

No one is suggesting this election season that New York Comptroller Alan Hevesi lacks the specialized skills to perform one of the more critical jobs in state government. The questions instead are simple enough to be of the layman’s variety. For example, where is this man’s common sense?

Last week should have had Mr. Hevesi especially on guard. It began with him having to repay the state some $83,000 after he was caught using a comptroller’s office employee to act as a driver for his ailing wife. Only by week’s end, Mr. Hevesi was scrambling to resolve another embarrassing misuse of the public’s money that never should have occurred in the first place.

Both Mr. Hevesi and his suddenly more aggressive and viable challenger, Christopher Callaghan, spoke to a New York State Association of Counties conference in Lake George. When it was Mr. Callaghan’s turn, Mr. Hevesi had him tape-recorded.

That much has become rather routine in political campaigns, a reality driven home by U.S. Sen. George Allen of Virginia and his already infamous “Macaca” comment. Such work is usually done by campaign aides. In Mr. Hevesi’s case, though, it was one of the press aides from the comptroller’s office, as the New York Daily News reported…