The Courier-Journal has a neat little story out today about the latest development in the Leonard Lawson bid-rigging scandal. In it, former Transportation Cabinet hack Jim Rummage has a couple of recorded conversations that Lawson’s defense attorney’s attest have no incriminating value yet nonetheless insist on blocking their inclusion into the legal proceedings against the corrupt asphalt magnate. Genius, guys.

Prosecutors called these tapes “a window into the conspiracy” and said that “Nighbert is on tape in real time talking about obtaining engineer estimates and rehearsing a cover story with Rummage.”

Rummage’s lawyer, Marc Murphy of Louisville, said he did not believe Rummage recorded the conversations with the intent of going to authorities.

“I think it was a much more generalized sense of, ‘Okay, I’m not an idiot. I read books, I see movies, I see where this could be heading. And I’m going to make sure I do what I can to protect myself,’ ” Murphy said. [C-J]

And what books might those have been? Machiavelli’s “The Prince”? Donald Trump’s “The Art of the Deal”? The Necronomicon?