Preaching procedure over practicality is the last bastion of the powerless. So is having a lawyerly escort for entering into minor confrontations.

This about sums where the Androscoggin County Commission is these days.

After its drawn-out drama over a deputy, the commission has decided again to attempt to assert authority in an unfortunate way. Three absent-minded – but repeatedly notified – towns neglected to send county budget committee candidates to the official county budget committee nominating caucus in August.

Auburn, Poland and Minot lost their voice on the committee, as a result. But the committee can nominate members from those towns to fill out its roster, and get on with the work of reviewing the county’s budget.

Except the stubborn county commission is threatening to sue the committee for allowing Auburn, Poland and Minot to have representation. Hence the lawyer, who joined commissioners during a contentious budget committee meeting last week.

First, the technicals: Auburn, Poland and Minot erred by failing to nominate candidates for the committee. Leaders in those communities should have been more attentive to their responsibility, and heeded the county’s repeated notifications about the caucus.

But a contingency – the power of the committee to seat representatives – exists for just such situations. The budget committee is within its authority to grant the towns a voice, even if they hadn’t remembered – or bothered – to speak in the first place.

The county commission is powerless to stop them. This is where it should end.

If the commission exerted as much effort toward leadership, as it does misguided attempts to assert authority, perhaps it could achieve both. Yet by stammering about vague legalities and threatening lawsuits – which taxpayers will fund, by the way – the board looks pathetic.

This isven without considering the commission’s desired victory: the authority to exclude towns from having oversight of its budget. This is a battle not worth winning.

Or worth fighting. The commission has already taken its lumps this year, and should sit this one out.

It’s impossible to wield power, when one doesn’t have any.