New Mexico bureaucrat busted for pot

Loretta Nall is on a roll this week. She posts an interesting article on New Mexico Public Regulation Commission member E. Shirley Baca who was arrested when airport screeners found a pipe filled with marijuana in her luggage. This is latest in string of embarrassing arrests of New Mexico's officials for substance abuse.

In June 2003, Baca spoke harshly about substance abuse among PRC employees when chief of staff Patrick Baca was charged with driving drunk. She said at the time she would consider asking that Patrick Baca be terminated or suspended regardless of the outcome of his case in court.

"Personally," she said at the time, "I think that top-ranking staff need to set an example for the whole department, as well as elected officials."

Baca's words may now come to haunt her.