C-J asks, What's the hurry? Pre-emption?

I missed this last week, from the Courier-Journal.
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There's no question the state Board of Education has the power to rush selection of a new education commission for Kentucky, before a new governor can take office. The question is, should it do that?

The answer is no.

It's not that whoever is elected governor should have veto power over the choice of someone to fill this post. Indeed, the legal and organizational structures now in place are supposed to prevent just that. The idea, and it's a good one, has been to insulate such choices from dominance by partisan politics.

However, a new commissioner can't, and shouldn't, isolate his or her office and its work from the agenda of the governor, be it a re-elected Ernie Fletcher or his challenger, Steve Beshear...

...Presumably, the Fletcher administration wants ... partnership and teamwork to continue, even if Mr. Beshear is elected. So why doesn't the board wait to see what happens on Nov. 6, before naming a new commissioner? If it's Mr. Beshear, as all the polls suggest it will be, what's wrong with the board at least hearing from him on goals and priorities?

If there's a rush to name a commissioner before then, it will be a clear signal that the board, controlled by Fletcher appointees, wants pre-emption, not cooperation.