It's been said there are no second acts in politics.

Really?

Whoever said that never met Roy Moore, who rose and fell and rose and fell again, and who even now is clawing the dirt above his political grave. Nor Alabama Gov. Fob James, who won and then lost as a Democrat, and then won and lost as a Republican.

Or look a couple of doors down, toward Louisiana, where Edwin Edwards danced on and off the political stage like the godfather of soul -- twice with the feds' handcuffs around his wrists.

Politicians don't just have second acts, some of them have more sequels than the Marvel movie universe. Like comic book villains, they're never really dead.

Which brings us to Troy King -- a failed Alabama attorney general who wants to turn his 2010 defeat into a new political franchise.

King is poised perfectly as an Alabama politician aspiring to make a comeback. Everyone remembers his name but few can recall why.

It's worth our time to remember.

Guest of dishonor

In January 2008, Dothan developer Ronnie Gilley mailed out invitations for a party at his home. Country music legends George Jones and John Anderson would be there, Gilley promised in the invites. But the guest of honor?

"Come dressed for fun and join Attorney General Troy King for a bash you'll never forget!" the invitations said.

It's a bash King probably hopes you will forget.

You see, Gilley wasn't just a developer. He had plans to build a massive casino in Dothan called Country Crossing, and he would later go to prison for bribing Alabama lawmakers to make it happen. As a state's witness, Gilley later testified that King's chief of staff advised him to show lawmakers the "color of his money."

But in 2008, he needed something from King. While the Alabama Constitution allowed charity bingo in Houston County, the law still prohibited things like paying employees with that money. Or profits. All the proceeds had to go to charity.

Six weeks after that party, in a stunning act of legal contortionism, King's office issued an AG's opinion clearing the way for Country Crossing to receive the gambling permit it needed. It also allowed the charity arm of Gilley's operation to pay Gilley's for-profit company licensing fees and operating expenses.

It wasn't "profit," you see, but a "cost." Get it?

The feds later investigated King but never charged him with breaking the law.

There should be a law

And that wasn't the first time King was caught rubbing elbows in the wrong places.

In 2006, King took his family and some church friends to a Braves game in Atlanta; only he didn't pay for the tickets. Instead, his group were treated as guests of Alabama Power and watched the game from the company's skybox.

At the time, such a thing was legal. If a public official did that today, they would be in violation of the state ethics laws and guilty of a felony.

King argued that accepting the tickets was no different than taking a campaign contribution.

Before that, in 2005, King had asked Alabama two-year college Chancellor Roy Johnson to find a job for a friend's mother. In 2006, he again solicited Johnson, this time for a grant for a friend's charity.

Both times, King knew that Johnson and the two-year system were under investigation by his office. He was soliciting favors from a target of an investigation.

King had to recuse himself from the investigations after his involvement with Johnson became public.

Later, Johnson would plead guilty to 15 counts of bribery and 16 other defendants either accepted guilty pleas or were convicted on corruption charges.

Again, King was never charged with a crime, because Alabama law then didn't prohibit the sort of things he was doing.

But it does now, in part because King's actions so revolted the Alabama Legislature that in 2010 it passed sweeping ethics reforms.

So give some credit where credit's due. Without Troy King, in some twisted way, Alabama might not have passed the tough ethics laws it has today.

But that doesn't mean we should trust him to enforce them.

Kyle Whitmire is the state political columnist for the Alabama Media Group.

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