Michael Decker pled guilty to taking a bribe to vote for Jim Black. Black’s appointee to the Lottery Board was convicted of fraud. Black’s aide, Meredith Norris, plead guilty to lobbying Black illegally. And a lottery vender’s Vice President was also convicted of illegally lobbying Black.

Defending himself, Speaker Black argues stoutly he can’t recall ever discussing Kevin Geddings’ appointment to the Lottery Commission with the two lottery lobbyists and never offered Decker a bribe. But, the other day, in federal court Decker named Black as one of his ‘co-conspirators.’ I don’ know exactly what that means but it doesn’t sound too good. During the first four rounds of the lottery trials we learned a lot about how politics works behind the scenes in state government. We got a peak behind the curtain. If round five involves Jim Black in a trial we’ll get a look at politics, behind the curtain, at the highest level. It might be the most revealing political trial in state history.