Some political scandals are sickening; some just have the potential to make you sick. In Missouri, there are questions hanging over Gov. Jay Nixon about the state’s slow response to high bacteria levels in a popular tourist destination:

Some call it E. coli-gate.
Others call the controversy over why the Jay Nixon administration failed to warn the public about high bacteria levels at the Lake of the Ozarks in May “Dirty Watergate.”
Call it what you want, but the caper has sent the eight-month-old administration careening down a twisting highway long after midnight — and the headlights aren’t working.
As last week came to a close, the latest developments left the Nixon gang facing big questions that could have serious implications:
Whom can the public trust? And how much credibility is left in the tank?
Never before did I expect to witness a reporter ask a top official named Nixon: “What did you know, and when did you know it?”

Aside from easy jokes, apparently Nixon told reporters “blatantly inaccurate — and easily verifiable — information” about when the lake was closed for dangerously high bacteria levels. There’s some question of why the head of the state’s Department of Natural Resources gave the governor inaccurate information, or whether information never made its way to the governor. The bottom line is that some folks within the state government knew about the threat to the public, but never bothered to tell the public.