The state commission that regulates lobbying is accusing the state attorney general, Eliot Spitzer, of “bad faith” for refusing to join in the commission’s witch hunt against hip-hop impresario Russell Simmons. Mr. Simmons helped organize a public rally at City Hall in support of repealing the state’s tough Rockefeller-era drug laws. We don’t see eye to eye with Mr. Simmons on the question of penalties for drug criminals, but we certainly fail to see where the state lobbying commission has any business investigating his exercise of his First Amendment rights to free speech and to petition the government for redress of grievances. Frustrated with Mr. Spitzer’s unresponsiveness, the lobbying commission has now apparently decided to pursue its court battle against Mr. Simmons on its own, without Mr. Spitzer’s lawyering, thus proving the adage that he who has himself for a lawyer has a fool for a client. If Mr. Spitzer really wanted to make some waves, he’d go beyond foot-dragging on this particular case to launch a frontal legal challenge, on constitutional grounds, against the laws that the lobbying commission is using to try to go after Mr. Simmons. The commission seems to be trying to wring a six-figure settlement out of Mr. Simmons. If Mr. Simmons pays it, he’ll be setting a precedent that could devastate freedom of speech in New York State.