The issue is not, as Governor Easley tried to say it was, that first lady Mary Easley is a woman, suggesting that if a man who was the spouse of a governor got what amounts to an 88 percent raise (from $90,300 to $170,000, although with expanded duties) no one would say anything. Yes, they would.

Mrs. Easley's responsibilities at N.C. State University -- teaching, heading a speakers' program, being a liaison with the legal community, directing the training of public safety leaders and others in the field, among other things -- are ones for which she is clearly qualified. An attorney, she is capable, intelligent, savvy and experienced in the law and public service.

But there are legitimate questions: Where did the idea for the job originate? Why is the first lady being paid at a level roughly 50 percent higher than an experienced full professor? Why is this being done while Governor Easley still is in office? Are such positions, with comparable salaries, fairly common at N.C. State? Was the new job, as the governor put it, advertised, or was it solely targeted for Mrs. Easley?

The governor's defensiveness about a story broken by the Carolina Journal, a publication of the conservative John Locke Foundation, is inappropriate. He should have known that such a high-profile appointment for his wife would have raised those questions and others. The unfolding of the story will continue, as it should.