Massachusetts Attorney General Tom Reilly wants to be the next governor in the worst way.

And that's just how he's doing it.

Let's look at some of the things he's done.

1) He championed a proposed bill (that went down in flames) to grant illegal aliens the in-state tuition rate at state-run colleges. As the state's highest law-enforcement officer, he had no problems with rewarding lawbreakers.

2) He decided to fight the oxycontin-abuse epidemic in his state by threatening to sue the drug's maker.

3) He appears to have tried to cover up the details of a car crash that claimed the lives of two teenage girls, and severely injured a third, at the behest of a major contributor.

And now, just when you think Tom Reilly can't dig himself any deeper, he finds a bigger shovel.

In Massachusetts, the Governor and Lieutenant Governor run separately. Often two candidates will unite as a ticket, but it's nothing binding. Reilly was in serious negotiations with Chris Gabrieli, a millionaire who has run for office before and is pretty much universally liked by the party apparatchiks. But at the last moment, Reilly tossed aside Gabrieli and tapped state representative Marie St. Fleur (D-Dorchester) as his partner.

The choice puzzled a lot of people. St. Fleur is best known as the first Haitian-born immigrant (presumably legal) to hold elective office in Massachusetts and the lead sponsor of the ill-fated tuition break for illegals mentioned above. Some just chalked it up to Reilly attempting to cut into the support of his man rival, Deval Patrick, by trumping a black male opponent with a black female.

But Mr. Reilly should have done a bit more digging.

The Boston Globe, who backs Patrick (a former Clinton administration official), sicced a few of its watchdogs on Ms. St. Fleur's background -- and they struck gold.

Ms. St. Fleur seems to have a common ailment among Massachusetts Democratic officials -- an allergy to paying taxes. (Apparenlty it only affects them when paying them, and not imposing them.) She apparently owes over $12,000 in back taxes, is delinquent on $40,000 in student loans, and has had liens put on her house several times for unpaid gas bills.

I'll be at work long before this piece publishes, but I'm going to go on record right now (8:00 a.m. EST) that she will be off the Reilly ticket by now. I'll post an update as I get the opportunity.