This is exactly what the Kansas Legislature and the Kansas people don’t need right now.

It was completely predictable (in fact it was predicted in this space last week) that certain state legislators would use a mistake by Kansas Supreme Court Justice Lawton Nuss to derail negotiations on legislation to fund K-12 schools in Kansas. Now, not only are some Republicans in the Kansas Senate calling for an investigation of the justice, they are attacking one another. The intraparty fighting seems to be taking center stage and could well stymie – or at least significantly delay – any progress on school legislation.

The uproar stems from a lunch Nuss had with two state legislators: his longtime friend Sen. Pete Brungardt of Salina and Senate President Steve Morris of Hugoton. The three men present at the lunch have reported that they spent about five minutes discussing a chart Nuss had created in an attempt to understand the size of various proposals being considered by legislators.

It was an inappropriate communication by a justice about a case that was pending before him. In response, Nuss removed himself from future deliberation of the school finance case. The state’s 14-member Commission on Judicial Qualifications will review the Nuss incident and consider whether any judicial misconduct occurred. As far as the Legislature is concerned the case should be closed.

But, rather than getting back to the important business of completing a school finance package, the two senators who just happen to be seeking the Republican nomination for governor and lieutenant governor this year are attacking their own Senate leaders. Sen. Jim Barnett of Emporia, a GOP candidate for governor; and his running mate, Sen. Susan Wagle of Wichita, are publicly questioning Morris’ account of the lunch, saying Morris told them something quite different than what he told the Kansas Attorney General’s office, which already is investigating the incident.

Meanwhile, Morris says all of his statements about the lunch have been consistent. When Wagle told Morris during a public caucus of GOP senators that his memo to the AG was different from what he told her, Morris replied, “It shouldn’t be. It’s what happened.”

This he-said-she-said circus is a disservice to the people of Kansas. Any misconduct connected with this lunch can be pursued through the appropriate channels, but there is no indication that anything that happened at that lunch had an impact on the school finance case before the Supreme Court. That has been further confirmed by Nuss’ removal from further involvement in the matter.

Rather than dithering and trying to make political points off this incident, Barnett, Wagle and those in the Senate who are egging them on, should refocus their attention on the important job of funding Kansas schools. Assuming the Legislature is able to finish its deliberations in a reasonable and timely way, there will be plenty of time for politicking before the Republican primary in August.