In light of the public health division fiasco regarding the hepatitis C outbreak, we might as well ask of the outgoing Lynch administration: is everything in your government unraveling or just the important items?

John Lynch, who came into office as a man to be trusted with running a company, has outlasted any other governor. But four terms here amounts to the average eight years that many other governors serve. Perhaps it is only at the end that the cracks start appearing.

In addition to the mess that the Division of Public Health is making with the hepatitis C outbreak, the governor’s handpicked head of the Department of Employment Security had to resign in a nepotism scandal. And now we find that the Lynch-appointed State Liquor Commission can neither keep control of its stock nor get its story straight on the matter.

Since last December, it seems, $100,000 of wine has been misplaced or misaccounted for at a single state store. The governor wasn’t informed of this until last month. When he was, he was apparently told what Liquor Chairman Joe Mollica told the news media: We asked the county attorney to investigate and nothing came of it.

But Rockingham County Attorney Jim Reams says no one told him anything.

The attorney general is now said to be investigating. It better not only investigate the missing wine. It better investigate what is going on at the Liquor Commission.

Meantime, the Executive Council would be wise not to bother confirming any more Lynch appointments, to anything. A new governor is definitely needed here.