Politicians often forget that some things aren't supposed to be pursued using taxpayer-funded resources. Like political vendettas.

But that's what Illinois Attorney General Lisa Madigan appears to have done over the past five months in her battle to remain Governor Rod Blagojevich's advocate against charges her office publicly supports.

Blagojevich is being sued by two watchdog groups for refusing to release federal subpoenas requesting documents on a three-year-long election-campaign probe. And avowed enemies like Madigan rarely shy from using it as a stick to beat him with.

But this time Madigan's judgement failed. Blagojevich made clear in February he believed she was conflicted in defending his right to keep those subpoenas secret. A district court in April agreed and granted leave to replace her.

But Madigan foolishly hung in there and eventually sought leave to appeal to the Illinois Supreme Court after being rebuffed at the appellate level, AP reported.

Mercifully, as our story today reveals, even the AG knows when to bail on a lost cause. On Friday she announced she was quitting from representing Blagojevich in both cases even though she was still awaiting the state Supreme Court's ruling.

Sorry - too late. The January suits were clearly about the same subpoenas whose release Madigan's office called for last year. Plus the judge clearly vindicated Blagojevich's argument about Madigan's conflict of interest three and a half months ago. No prizes for guessing which way the SC would go.

But that's a lot of hard-pressed court time and effort wasted on what looks like little more than some petty political infighting. Yes, the perpetrators are in the same (Democratic) party.

Not to say LNL has anything against pursuing internal political vendettas - heck, in Blagojevich's case we'd actively encourage it. But please, folks - not on the public's dime or the public's time.