JEFFERSON CITY — In politics, history has a way of repeating itself.

This year's E. coli scandal, for instance, is not the first time in Missouri's recent past that the Department of Natural Resources has been used by elected officials as a punching bag.

By now the story has been told and retold. Summer tests showed high levels of potentially dangerous E. coli bacteria at the Lake of the Ozarks. DNR officials kept the results secret, even after being asked to release them. Gov. Jay Nixon said his office knew nothing about it. But it did, as Nixon admitted last week.

Republicans criticized the folks the Democratic governor had put in charge of the agency. The investigation into the cover-up unveiled even more E. coli tests that should have closed a beach at the lake. The incident has put Nixon and his administration on the defensive, and it has made the DNR look bad.

But four years ago, there was a different political imbroglio at the DNR, and back then it was Nixon doing the criticizing.

In 2005, Nixon sued the department when he was attorney general because he wanted to block then-Gov. Matt Blunt from allowing Union Pacific to dismantle the Boonville Bridge. It was the first major tussle between Nixon and Blunt in what became a running feud between the two political rivals.

Nixon's suit was a constitutional nightmare. The attorney general represents the state in most legal matters, but here was Nixon suing the DNR's director, Doyle Childers, and, in effect, seeking to remove him from office.

Nixon lost the lawsuit.

During the course of that dispute, Nixon referred to the folks in charge of the DNR as "political hacks." He said they were abusing their discretion to benefit Blunt's political cronies.

Now Nixon is under fire because of decisions made — or not made — in the same department by his political, um, appointments.

History repeats itself.

In 2005, the DNR struck back, and in legal filings accused a Nixon aide, Bill Bryan, of shirking his legal responsibilities by using information he obtained as the DNR's lawyer to help his boss, Nixon, in his political pursuit.

That accusation offers a bridge — pardon the metaphor — between two distinctly different DNR disputes.

Nixon has now appointed Bryan to investigate why tourists were allowed to swim at Public Beach 1 at the Lake of the Ozarks around Memorial Day despite high E. coli tests that should have led to its closure.

In the Boonville case, lawyers for the DNR wanted to know who Bryan shared information with at Nixon's office prior to the bridge lawsuit being filed.

The names are some of the same ones Bryan is now charged with investigating.

In 2005, Joe Bindbeutel was Bryan's boss. Earlier this year, Bindbeutel was the DNR official who refused to publicly release the damaging E. coli reports to the public.

In 2005, John Watson was Nixon's chief of staff, and Bryan, in a deposition in the Boonville case, testified that he had shared information about the bridge with Watson before Nixon filed his lawsuit.

Now, Watson is the chief of staff to Nixon the governor, and similar questions are being asked about whether Bindbeutel shared E. coli information with him.

Bryan is expected to release his report in the next week or so. The key political question is this: Will it help the DNR — or Nixon — recover from this mess?

Sen. Brad Lager, the Savannah Republican who has been investigating the E. coli cover-up, questions whether Bryan can be trusted to produce an unbiased report. After all, he's very close to Bindbeutel, who in effect was in charge of the DNR at the time all the mistakes took place. Another longtime Nixon aide, Chris Pickering, has been appointed by Nixon to help Bryan.

"Both of these guys have been with Nixon for over a decade," Lager points out. "This is not like we have an unbiased third party doing the investigation. These are political appointments."

In another day, in another dispute, Nixon himself might have used the word "hacks."

But that's water under the bridge.

Today, Nixon defends his choice of Bryan to investigate Bryan's former boss.

"Bill's reputation for protecting Missouri's natural resources is unquestioned," said Nixon spokesman Jack Cardetti.

Lager said he doesn't question Bryan's knowledge of DNR issues. He just doesn't believe the doubting public will be appeased by a report that isn't independent.

"I think there is an inherent conflict," Lager said of one Nixon aide investigating another.