Coming this spring to Frankfort

There's big news out of Frankfort. This spring, Steve and Jane Beshear will be sponsoring a Holiday Egg hunt on the Capitol grounds.

A few questions for a few UK students

We have a few questions we'd like to ask the University of Kentucky students who protested the naming of the new basketball dormitory, to be paid for fully with private donations, the Wildcat Coal Lodge.

How many of you pay your own electricity bills as opposed to having mommy and daddy foot your room and board expenses?

Are any of you actually from Kentucky's coal counties, or the coal counties in neighboring states?

Do any of you have anyone in your family who is employed by the coal industry or its related businesses?

Do any of you have family or friends who are from the communities that rely on coal money for a large percentage of their economic activity, such as retail sales?

If so, then you have skin in the game (to quote your beloved president, Barack Hussein Obama) and you have standing to criticize the decision because you have a personal stake in the future of the coal industry. You are the ones who will be paying higher prices for electricity and you are the ones who will see the hometowns of your relatives and friends suffer economically.

If not, then leave the discussion to the grownups and those who would be most impacted by the demise of coal mining, and go protest something like UK's ban on alcohol on school property. Your opinions would be much more relevant in that debate.

Naming rights for an evergreen donation?

Much ado is being made over an innocuous line in a press release referring to the prospective state Christmas tree as "the Commonwealth Holiday tree."

Why the Frankfort Plant Board will be retrieving the tree is something that doesn't quite compute with us. Doesn't the state have personnel and equipment sufficient enough to travel out in the state to cut the tree and haul it back to Frankfort? Why should the FPB face the possibility of having to drive to Pikeville or Paducah to get the tree?

But putting that aside, we've watched with amusement this week the furor over the naming rights to the new University of Kentucky basketball dormitory. The donors put up money to build the facility on the condition it be called "Wildcat Coal Lodge."

So we have a suggestion for all those would-be tree donors out there who have a tree meeting the criteria.

How about you give the tree only on the condition that it be called "the Commonwealth Christmas tree" and tell Steve Beshear and Jonathan Miller that if they insist on being politically correct for fear of offending a minority of Kentuckians, they can't have your tree but you will gladly provide them a few limbs that they can shove up their holiday anuses?

Horse manure

Not only is coal mining one of Kentucky's signature industries, it is responsible for employing hundreds of people in eastern and western Kentucky and contributing to the financial and business success of several counties and town in the state. Yet there are a number of people, mostly Democrats, who are trying to dismantle the coal industry without regard to the economic havoc they would create.

They claim their actions are environmentally motivated.

These same people are clamoring for allowing some form of casino gambling at Kentucky's horse racing tracks to prop up another of the state's signature industries.

Leaving the issue of why they'd demonize one of the state's signature industries while at the same time trying to artificially prop up another signature industries for another discussion, we think this "save the environment" line is worth looking into.

Wonder if anyone has ever determined just how much methane that horse flatulence puts into the atmosphere, and what kind of "carbon footprint" horses have and how much they contribute to global warming? After all, if cow flatulence is supposedly so bad for the earth, surely horse gas is equally evil.

And if coal mining is ruining drinking water in the mountains, what about runoff from horse poop in the Bluegrass?

Just a little something to think about on a cloudy Wednesday.

When dinosaurs speak

What happens when dinosaurs speak?

You get this.

Someone needs to tell Wendell Ford to go back to Owensboro, continue to smoke two packs of cigarettes a day, and keep his worn out, discredited opinions to himself. His time has come and gone with very little if anything to show for the benefit of Kentuckians during his time as governor or in the U.S. Senate.

General Cliched Talking Points

Could retired Gen. Wesley Clark have uttered more old, tired, cliched and patently false talking points than he did in this interview with the Herald-Leader?

How anyone can say that Democrats believe in "taking care of people" when they are voting for legislation that will cause energy bills to skyrocket and will result in Medicaid cuts?

We always thought military men had honor, and part of honor meant not lying to the people. Someone forgot to tell Gen. Cliched Talking Points that.

About the only thing Clark said that wasn't a tired old false talking point was when he said President Obama should listen to the field commanders when it comes to making a decision on sending more troops to Afghanistan. He strayed from the talking points on that one, for sure.

Horse manure isn't the only thing they'll have to clean up at The Red Mile after Clark's speech in Lexington. There's a lot of bull crap that needs to be shoveled away now, too.

Stepping back into the void

You may or may not have noticed -- or may or may not have cared -- but we've been on an extended hiatus from blogging.

In large part that's due to our disgust with the sorry state of conservative politics in Kentucky.

While the conservative movement, and to a lesser extent the Republican Party, has been galvanized and energized by the Obama presidency on a national basis, the same can't be said for the party or the movement on a statewide basis in the commonwealth.

Gov. Beshear has chosen a new running mate to replace Lt. Gov. Dan Mongiardo, who's engaged in a Democratic Senate campaign, and is out raising money for the 2011 gubernatorial election. Yet no Republican has even announced his or her candidacy and media pundits are predicting that although Beshear is weak and vulnerable, he's likely to be re-elected.

Our top two candidates for the U.S. Senate seat next year include a candidate widely perceived as a moderate RINO and a candidate widely perceived as a fringe candidate, much as his father's presidential bid was viewed.

No credible challenger has emerged to run against Democrat Rep. John Yarmuth of Louisville, who is in his second term and probably will be around for awhile if he's not ousted this time.

Frankly, we're still disgusted with the conservative movement and the Republican Party in Kentucky. We don't know why the national enthusiasm that has blanketed the country has evaded Kentucky except for a few tea parties. We can't understand why there's no one out there actively challenging Democrats like Yarmuth, Beshear and Greg Stumbo. The eat-your-own mentality that Sens. Mitch McConnell and Jim Bunning employed against former Gov. Ernie Fletcher, and more recently McConnell used on Bunning, is something we find repulsive.

But there's a void in the blogosphere that needs to be filled, and we're opting to step back into it.

The state's blogosphere has undergone some changes in the past few months, on both sides of the aisle.

On the right, Brett Hall has let kypolitics.org go to concentrate on the gubernatorial campaign he's managing in Alabama. Hall updated his site from afar up until mid-summer, at which time he abandoned it. David Adams put Kentucky Progress on hiatus to go manage Rand Paul's U.S. Senate campaign.

And on the left, there have been changes. The Rural Democrat is no more. PageOne Kentucky seems to be concentrating on the homosexual political agenda and promoting Little Jackie Conway's Senate bid and ripping Mongiardo's campaign at every turn. Barefoot and Progressive has become a loopy conglomerate of out-of-touch liberals, abortion advocates and atheists.

And bluegrassreport.org is no more. That site, probably the biggest pox on online political commentary ever to disgrace the Bluegrass State, is gone, and the URL tells visitors that the site might be for sale. Good riddance to Mark Nickolas; may he never set foot in Kentucky again and inflict us with his vile excuse for an existence.

We freely admit that this blog was started in defense of Ernie Fletcher. We still think that what happened to him and his governorship was a disgrace never before witnessed in the long, sordid history of Kentucky politics. His attempts to weed out the harmful vestiges of decades of Democrat patronage were stymied by a hypocritical assault by some of the biggest perpetrators of political hackery this state has ever seen. Prosecuted by one of his 2003 opponent's biggest supporters. That effort led by an attorney general with no moral authority and who himself was a documented supporter of Democrat patronage. Indicted by a tainted grand jury full of Democrats and state merit employees, including one whose husband worked for the aforementioned attorney general.

We will still rise to the defense of Gov. Fletcher when necessary. But the emphasis of our return will be to promote common-sense conservatism in Kentucky and to call out Republicans who do not practice such. We will push for an alternative Senate candidate to come out to provide a viable alternative to RINO Grayson and fringe candidate Paul. And we will urge someone to come out early and declare an intent to challenge Beshear in 2011 and start raising money to be able to compete with him in the general election. Our desire will be for a real conservative who understands conservative principles and will be able to follow down the path that Fletcher started to blaze.

We'll also point out hypocrisy, stupidity, insanity and other negative traits in the campaigns of Senate candidates from both parties, the Beshear administration, the media and other blogs whose agendas don't jibe with the wants, needs, desires and values of average hard-working Kentuckians who struggle to make ends meet, have strong faith and belief in God and a system of morality, and are generally the ordinary folks among us. We may not post as frequently as we did before our hiatus, but we're back and we'll do our best to keep readers informed and offer knowledgeable analysis on political and social events in the Bluegrass.

An unnecessary expense

We've been silent for awhile, quite honestly, because we've become disgusted with the Kentucky political scene. The thoughts of the Senate race make us sick. We have honestly found none of the announced or speculative candidates to be worthy of support. All have fatal flaws, ranging from disloyalty to their party's governor (Bunning and Grayson) to outright kookery (Paul). We'd almost as soon see Mongiardo or Conway win one term and then replace them in six years with a Republican who truly knows what it means to be a conservative Republican.

But what fired us back into blogging mode was the recent special session call by Gov. Beshear. He is about to put the state through an unnecessary and expensive legal battle over his plan to approve slot machines (or video lottery terminals, as they like to call them) at Kentucky's horse racing tracks without benefit of a constitutional amendment approving the expansion of gambling beyond the lottery and betting on horse races.

A lawsuit has already been promised should the legislation pass, and really there's no guarantee of its victory.

Beshear would have been better served to systematically make his case for expanded gambling to the people of Kentucky and the members of the General Assembly, then have a constitutional amendment introduced in next year's biennial session.

This special session call accomplishes nothing, and the session itself won't either. Despite what gambling proponent Greg Stumbo opined when he was attorney general, it's generally believed that expanding gambling without a constitutional amendment is unconstitutional and such a law will be overturned.

But no one ever accused Beshear of having a clue. When even a number of yellow-dog Democrats say they wish they'd never voted for him and would prefer Ernie Fletcher to the current governor, you know times are bad. Beshear may not have supported President Obama in last year's primary, but they both have something in common: They can look forward to being one-termers.

Interesting rumor out of Frankfort regarding personnel probe

We're hearing an interesting rumor out of Frankfort regarding the investigation into hiring practices during Gov. Ernie Fletcher's administration that eventually torpedoed his re-election bid.

We've long held that the investigation was politically motivated, and sparked by one Transportation Cabinet employee with a personal grudge against Fletcher stemming from his inability to parlay his having gone to Lafayette High School with Fletcher into a cushy political appointment.

However, this rumor takes the investigation beyond the mere scope of political motivation into one of personal revenge.

The leading prosecutor in the grand jury probe was Scott Crawford-Sutherland, an employee of the attorney general's office under Ben Chandler who gave the maximum allowable campaign contributions to Chandler's ill-fated 2003 gubernatorial campaign. When Chandler lost the governor's race to Fletcher and Greg Stumbo took over as AG, Crawford-Sutherland stayed on with the AG's office.

We're hearing that Crawford-Sutherland either had designs on being the governor's general counsel if Chandler had won, or had in fact been promised the job. Fletcher's defeat of Chandler dashed that opportunity for Crawford-Sutherland, so he pushed the indictment of Fletcher staffers and eventually the governor himself out of a personal desire for revenge. Denied a plum political appointment, Crawford-Sutherland sough to do maximum damage to the man who spoiled his plans.

Couple that with Stumbo's political posturing and ladder-climbing, and you have the recipe for a witch hunt. It was bad enough that Stumbo used the attorney general's office for political gain, but when an employee uses his prosecutorial power to push a personal agenda of political revenge, that crosses a line.

Between the malevolent motives of the AG's office and the compromised integrity of the grand jury, which we've discussed many times, only a fool would take the indictments and the charges they presented seriously, as something legitimate and honest. Unfortunately, 65 percent of Kentucky's electorate got fooled in 2007, and all of us are left paying the price.

Freudian hire?

We couldn't help but notice that the Obama administration has hired an actor (Kal Penn) who played an Islamofascist terrorist on "24" a couple of seasons ago.

Dear Jim Bunning: Please quit whining!

We've been watching with bemusement this developing feud between Kentucky's U.S. Senators, Mitch McConnell and Jim Bunning.

McConnell won re-election in his toughest battle yet last fall; Bunning is up for re-election next year. Concerns about Bunning's vulnerability as an incumbent have apparently prompted McConnell to turn on his former friend and colleague.

Bunning hasn't been silent about what's happening at all; to the contrary he's been increasingly outspoken at what he sees as a bid from McConnell to sabotage his re-election bid.

The junior senator won't get a sympathetic ear here. Of all people, Bunning should know full well what McConnell is capable of. After all, Bunning sat and watched as McConnell recruited Anne Northup to run against incumbent Ernie Fletcher in the 2007 Republican gubernatorial primary, then endorsed Northup over Fletcher. Why should Bunning be aghast at this behavior when he was part and parcel of something similar two years ago?

Although Bunning has been a staunch fiscal conservative, standing against bailouts and stimulus packages and tax increases, we lump him and McConnell in the same category because they fail a basic test of conservatism: loyalty. They showed no loyalty to Ernie Fletcher, now McConnell is giving Bunning the "Fletcher treatment" and Bunning seems surprised.

You reap what you sow. Bunning is getting the same thing that he and McConnell visited upon Fletcher two years ago.

Instead of working to find an opponent for Bunning, perhaps McConnell should instead be working to help shore up his colleague's perceived weaknesses.

Don't get us wrong: we'd be more than happy to see Bunning shot down in flames, precisely because of what he did to Fletcher. But should Bunning be shocked that McConnell is doing this? We aren't.

Grassroots Republicans are becoming increasingly frustrated with McConnell for his failure to support his party's candidates, and Bunning has a grassroots fandom because of his fiscal conservatism. It will be interesting to see how that turns out in terms of popular support for McConnell and his position as titular leader of the state Republican Party.

Still, what goes around comes around, karma is a wonderful thing, and all that. Bunning is now on the receiving end of what he helped dish out not all that long ago. Ernie Fletcher didn't whine and cry about it when Bunning did it to him. Bunning ought not be crying about it now that Mitch has targeted him.

Election fraud indictments: Is Perry County next?

Even though all the media attention is being given to this week's election fraud indictments in Clay County, that may be just the tip of the iceberg.

We're hearing of a joint federal-state investigation into vote buying in Perry County, just 45 minutes up the Hal Rogers Parkway from Clay County. This investigation involves payments made by local Democrat party officials to local residents prior to the 2008 general election. While investigators are giving the standard "neither confirm nor deny" non-answer when asked about the matter, folks in and around Hazard are coming forth to say they have been subpoenaed to testify in front of a grand jury.

Although the local party chair says nothing was done wrong, we'll just have to wait and see. The Democrat chair in Perry County is also on the county school board, which is awash in controversy over the closing of an elementary school, the looming possibility of a state takeover, and fallout from allegations that the school superintendent possessed child pornography on his district-owned computer.

Don't forget that Perry County is home of Lt. Gov. Dan Mongiardo, who so far is the only Democrat who's announced that he wants to take on Jim Bunning in next year's U.S. Senate race.

We note two things from this investigation. First is that every time allegations of election fraud are made, Democrats are quick to say that there is no such thing and that the real problem is vote suppression by Republicans. Funny, though, that this investigation is being undertaken by officials from the federal government (President B. Hussein Obama and Attorney General Eric Holder are staunch Dems) and by the state government (Gov. Steve Beshear and Attorney General Little Jackie Conway are which party, folks?) so in this instance, it's Democrats investigating Democrats. And we also find it odd that most of the election fraud investigations and subsequent convictions usually come from Democrat counties.

The second thing we note is this: The fraud allegedly occurred in the 2008 general election. Even with cheating, B. Hussein Obama couldn't carry Perry County, which has one of the largest black populations in the mountains. Doesn't speak well of the Messiah's popularity in the Bluegrass, does it?

Bluegrass Embarrassment: Helen Thomas

It's been awhile since we spotlighted anyone in our "Bluegrass Embarrassment" series, but it's past time to throw the name of Helen Thomas into the mix.

For years, this Winchester native was the dean of the Capitol press corps. After she retired from news reporting and became an opinion columnist, her liberal bias really became known.

Ms. Thomas, you are an idiot. You bring shame upon the Commonwealth of Kentucky. You are washed up and quite probably going senile. You should do us all a favor and retire from the public eye, apologize for spewing your stupidity all these years, and mercifully disappear from the face of the earth.

It pains us to know that you are from the same state as we are, and it further pains us that your hometown was for years the residence of two of our collaborators.

We have no respect for you and we wish you'd just fade away. The sooner the better.

Two thumbs down, one thumb up on election reform proposals

Three election reform proposals are under consideration as the Kentucky General Assembly winds down its "off-year" session.

We support one of these initiatives and heartily oppose the other two.

The bill we support would allow gubernatorial candidates to wait until after the primary election to choose a lieutenant governor running mate.

We were not necessarily fans of the legislation requiring a gubernatorial slate back when was passed in the 1990s, although we understood the reasoning behind it. Most of us here at K-Pac are old enough to remember when Republican Gov. Nickel Louie had Democrat Wendell Ford as his lieutenant governor. And we remember the strife between Gov. Wallace Wilkinson and Lt. Gov. Brereton Jones, and then between Gov. Jones and Lt. Gov. Paul Patton.

Even the slate didn't end the strife. Patton and Lt. Gov. Steve Henry had a falling-out, and of course the rift between Gov. Ernie Fletcher and Lt. Gov. Judas Iscariot Pence still resonates. And Gov. Steve Beshear and Lt. Gov. Dan Mongiardo have had a parting of the ways in recent months.

The proposed system would mirror the federal presidential election process, where the nominee get to pick a running mate and then have that choice ratified at the party convention. This would allow more candidates to run for governor, including some who may have hesitated because of difficulty of finding a running mate. It would also allow a winning candidate to possibly choose a vanquished primary opponent to offer the strongest and best possible ticket.

This law would also benefit Beshear. Since Mongiardo has announced a run for the Senate, conventional wisdom is that Beshear will have to find a new running mate for 2011 since candidates raise money as a slate. (Money raised for the Fletcher-Pence re-election bid had to be refunded after Pence opted off the ticket in 2007 and Fletcher had to choose a new running mate). This new law would allow Beshear to go ahead and raise money and not be hamstrung by the decision of the voters in the 2010 U.S. Senate race.

The two proposals we hate with a passion are the ones for early voting and for allowing independents to vote in party primaries.

There's a reason they call it "Election DAY." Transportation is faster and easier than ever before. If a 12-hour Election Day was good enough in the days of horseback riders and covered wagons, it's good enough when people have cars and can usually get to their polling place in a matter of minutes.

In addition, absentee voting is rife with opportunities, and is the primary source, for vote fraud in Kentucky. And early voting is just another name for absentee voting, without the requirement to prove you'll be unable to cast a ballot on Election Day.

We think the election process, with a 12-hour voting day with provisions to keep the polls open as long as voters are waiting in line to vote, is perfectly appropriate and acceptable, and is just fine as it is. There are too many opportunities for abuse and fraud with an elongated early voting system. We hope this one gets shot down.

And we also don't support allowing independents to corrupt the primary voting process. Primary elections are designed to allow political parties and their members to select their party's nominees for the general election. Independents would be interlopers in the party selection process and should not be tolerated. Besides, any number of independents can file for office for the general election, bypassing the primary system altogether, so independent voters aren't left without a choice during the election process.

We also fear that allowing independents to vote in party primaries could be the first step on the way to open primaries, which is a complete bastardization of the nomination process. Why should Democrats get to help select the Republican nominee, and vice versa? For that matter, why should those without a party affiliation be allowed to choose a party's nominee?

We saw what can go wrong with open primaries during the 2000 presidential election. Since Vice President Al Gore was already assured of the Democrat nomination despite some opposition in the primary, in states with open primaries, the Democrats flocked to the polls and voted in the Republican primary to try to get the weakest Republican candidate (Sen. John McCain) the nomination over the candidate perceived as the strongest contender (Gov. George W. Bush).

Democrats though (and rightly so, as 2008 proved) that McCain would be easier to beat than Bush, which is why they supported him in open primaries.

Primaries are nomination processes for party candidates, and should remain so. It's embarrassing that a Republican (Rep. Jimmy Higdon) is pushing this legislation.

The General Assembly should say "yes" to allowing gubernatorial nominees to pick their running mates after the primary, and say "not only no, but HELL NO to early voting and opening party primaries to independents.

Standing up to the anti-coal bullies

Coal is the lifeblood of southeastern Kentucky. We hesitate to think what Pikeville, Hazard and Harlan -- already economically beleaguered as it is -- would look like without the monetary shot in the arm "Black Diamonds" provide. And we shudder to think how much we'd have to pay for electricity without coal.

Yet there is no shortage of individuals and groups who want to, in essence, shut down the coal mining industry. They use every claim from "destruction of our irreplaceable mountains" to "global warming" to criticize coal. They have no concept of the economic damage they'd inflict on coal country if their efforts were ever successful. Whole communities in Kentucky, West Virginia, Virginia and Pennsylvania would no doubt collapse or become ghost towns.

That's why we want to toss kudos in the direction of the management of Camp Blanton in Harlan County, who recently told two anti-coal groups that they are not welcome to meet at the camp.

Coal country needs more individuals and groups to stand up to the anti-coal bullies and thugs who will stop at nothing to rip the economic heart out of an already-impoverished area.

Go cry your crocodile tears somewhere else, Mountain Justice and Kentucky Heartwood. The damage you do to our way of life is far worse than the damage you claim coal mining (and logging) does to the environment.

We salute Camp Blanton for this courageous stand in defense of the mountain economy.

Missed opportunities

We're no big fans of the federal stimulus bill, which promises to do more for field mice in California or commuters between the Vegas casinos and Disneyland than for the federal economy, but we do subscribe to the theory that roads are one of the key things for which governments should be responsible. The Constitution even gives federal authority to building and maintaining them. Does the phrase "post offices and post roads" mean anything?

So we're not going to complain about the inclusion of transportation projects in the stimulus package, especially since declining gas consumption back when gas was ridiculously overpriced caused cuts in state road fund budgets.

But we do lament Kentucky's many missed opportunities to make use of the stimulus money, due to some short-sighted manipulation of the Six-Year Road Plan last year by the General Assembly and Joe Prather's Transportation Cabinet.

Half of the stimulus money earmarked for road projects must be spent within 120 days on projects that are, to use the popular vernacular, "shovel-ready." This means projects for which design has been completed, right-of-way purchased, and utilities moved out of the way. All those tasks must be included in, and funded through, the Six-Year Plan prior to being let for bids and real dirt-moving work commencing.

The trouble is, the Beshear administration removed many projects from the Six-Year Plan last year, saying the state had no money for them. This included design, right-of-way purchase and utility relocation on many projects that had been pushed by Gov. Ernie Fletcher and his Democrat predecessors for several years. In addition, several other projects were scaled back under what a couple of now-departed Beshear administration Transportation engineers touted as "practical design."

Without their inclusion in the road plan, preliminary work stopped on many of these long-promised projects. That left them begging when stimulus money was allocated and assigned to "shovel-ready" projects. Had those projects been included in the road plan as they had been in previous years, more of them could have been "shovel-ready" or even closer.

It's been a political reality for years that the road plan is, in large part, a "wish list." Politicians could point to a project's inclusion and advancement in the Six-Year Plan as proof that progress was being made, whether or not any work was actually being done. Just getting some of these projects included in the plan, even if actual construction was a decade or two in the future, was an accomplishment to be pointed at with pride. But a project's inclusion in the plan meant that a commitment had been made to move it forward.

Beshear and Prather point to the current incarnation of the plan, which ran into some legal challenges last year over the timeliness of its passage and whether projects could be funded outside the normal budgetary process, as being a more realistic overview of what roads can and will be built, instead of the wish list they claim the plan had become. But what's really realistic is that their gutting of the plan last year probably cost some communities projects that could have gotten done with stimulus money.

Some of the road projects are no-brainers, such as finishing a road in Floyd County where most of the grade work and bridges had been completed, but was dropped during the Fletcher administration because of a supposed lack of funding.

But we still lament what could have been, had Beshear and Prather not been so short-sighted. Perhaps those communities with projects that were cut or reduced in scope should remember that when 2011 rolls around.

The reservation called; they're looking for John David Dyche

To be a so-called political analyst published in Kentucky's largest newspaper, John David Dyche surely doesn't write or think like one.

His most recent offering is so laughable as to make one wonder just what he's been smoking. He destroys all credibility he may have ever had with his assessment of the 2010 U.S. Senate race in Kentucky.

He states at the top that Trey Grayson and Crit Luallen are the two best candidates to run for the office currently held by Jim Bunning. That premise is flawed in and of itself, but the justification he uses to support that opinion is beyond explanation.

Let's look at Dyche's comments and dissect and refute them.

He says that Grayson deserves first shot at the Republican nomination should Sen. Jim Bunning change his mind and decide not to seek re-election. Why? What makes Grayson, a relative neophyte to politics and elective office, deserve a shot over longtime congressmen like Ed Whitfield, Hal Rogers or Geoff Davis? Dyche mentions Grayson's twice winning statewide office. What he doesn't mention is the first victory was on Ernie Fletcher's coattails, and his re-election bid was over an unknown and underfinanced candidate who couldn't ride Steve Behsear's wave.

We have been rightly critical of Grayson for his reprehensible failure to support his party's governor when the Democrats started attacking (his trial balloon at Fancy Farm about running for governor in 2007 has forever poisoned our outlook on Grayson) but despite that, we see nothing in his background that makes him more qualified to be a senator than any of Kentucky's congressional delegation, or even folks like Mike Duncan or Cathy Bailey, who've played on a national stage and are comfortable there.

But his assessment of the Democrats who are in, or thinking about getting in, the race is most troubling.

Dyche dismisses Lt. Gov. Dan Mongiardo, the only announced Democrat candidate, almost out of hand. We don't understand where he's coming from.

While Mongiardo nearly beat Bunning six years ago, most of that is Bunning's fault. Mongiardo was not exactly a respect-inspiring candidate in 2004, but he did step up for his party and he almost pulled a huge political upset. Dr. Dan's strong showing in that race instantly made him a prominent force in Kentucky politics, and it made him attractive enough to be asked onto Gov. Steve Beshear's ticket. While it's true that the two of them have since had a major falling-out, Mongiardo obviously brought something to the table for Beshear to want him on the slate.

"Mongiardo has not accomplished much in politics," Dyche writes. "Nothing in Mongiardo's record reveals readiness to deal with issues of national and international magnitude." And what, exactly, in Grayson's background does? In terms of political readiness and experience, we'd most certainly rank Mongiardo ahead of Grayson, due mostly to Mongiardo's legislative experience.

Dyche gets it wrong again in his assessment of Crit Luallen, who seems to be tied with Attorney General Little Jackie Conway in the ranking for the potential candidate most favored by Kentucky's far-left Democrats. Dyche says Luallen has earned bipartisan respect as an aggressive but fair auditor.

Excuse us while we do the "Animal House" cough. You know, "bulls--t." Luallen has shown a very partisan bent in her audits, going after Republican local officials with such ferocity that she is rivaling Greg Stumbo for partisan abuse of office. We were glad to see one county judge-executive recently go on the record in his local newspaper as saying he felt a negative audit report was politically motivated, despite the fact that the expenditure in question was signed off on by both state and federal officials. Luallen has gone out of her way to target GOP local elected officials and she should be called out on it.

Dyche also calls Luallen "personable." Since when did "personable" become a synonym for "untrustworthy back-stabber and power monger?" For that is exactly what Luallen is and always has been, dating back to her political appointive service under a multitude of Democrat governors. She has knifed a number of folks and climbed over their fallen bodies to reach a position of power. We doubt she'd do well as one of 100 in a place where she couldn't wield a shank with impunity.

Bunning's near-loss in 2004 portended his vulnerability, and the shifting political winds have only enhanced that tenuous position. We can't support Bunning because of his failure, like Mitch McConnell, to support his party's governor in a time of assault from the opposite party, and we think it's time he step down with dignity. But we certainly don't think Trey Grayson is the best possible replacement, and we don't think Conway or Luallen are better choices as a nominee on the other side than Mongiardo.

At one time, Dyche was a credible conservative Republican analyst. He comes from a long line of respected GOPers from the London and Somerset area, Kentucky's Republican stronghold. But over the past couple of years, his opinions have become more scattershot. He's become more of a McConnellite than a Republican; indeed, he's working on a biography of McConnell.

This time, though, he's totally off the reservation in his assessment of potential Senate candidates. We don't like Mongiardo's politics, but we certainly don't think as little of him as Dyche does. We find Mongiardo to be a credible and qualified candidate who doesn't bring the baggage of a Luallen or the inexperience of Grayson or Conway.

We're sure the reservation misses Dyche and wishes he'd hurry back.

Cannibalism is no way to build a majority

When you're the minority party in a state, outnumbered 2-1 in voter registration and with the majority holding most all the state and local offices of significance, the last thing you do if you're trying to become the majority is to eat your own.

So we have to ask Scott Jennings what in the world he's thinking if he wants to challenge a popular incumbent Republican congressman in the primary next year.

Jennings, a former campaign aide for U.S. Sen. Mitch McConnell's 2002 re-election bid and former Gov. Ernie Fletcher's successful 2003 candidacy and a former low-level official in the George W. Bush administration, is apparently toying with the idea of running for elective office in his home state. Since Jennings is a native of Dawson Springs (just like Gov. Steve Beshear) he seems to have his eyes on the 1st District seat currently held by the immensely popular Ed Whitfield. Brett Hall at kypolitics.org broke this story earlier this week to lots of interested consumers of political news in the Bluegrass.

Whitfield is the first Republican ever elected to Congress from Kentucky's westernmost district, where Democrats have an even more significant voter registration majority than they do in the rest of the state. (We know of a onetime Richard Nixon campaign volunteer who worked the Purchase area in 1972 who said of one of the counties, "They have fewer than 100 Republicans and there's three factions!")

Despite the registration deficit, Whitfield continues to take on all comers and keeps his seat. He even won last year despite the poisonous environment for Republicans in the nation. The opposition has tried to throw all kinds of mud at him, including the charge that he does not actually live in Kentucky, but none of it has ever stuck. (Note to Democrats: If you really believe Whitfield lives in Florida and not Hopkinsville, file a legal challenge to his residency. Otherwise, shut your traps.)

Given Whitfield's political strength and prowess in repeatedly winning in hostile territory, why in the world would Jennings even consider challenging him? Unless Jim Bunning decides to retire from the U.S. Senate and Whitfield enters that race, he's pretty much a shoo-in to win re-election again next year. If Jennings is successful in the primary, there's no guarantee that he'd be anywhere near as successful as Whitfield in the exceedingly-Democrat district.

When you're the minority, you absolutely have to stick together and be united if you are going to succeed and work toward being the majority. Yet Republicans can't ever seem to learn that lesson. Fletcher faced an uphill battle in his re-election bid in 2007, and it wasn't helped when prominent state Republicans effectively sided with Greg Stumbo during his politically-motivated investigation into the administration's hiring practices. Instead of rallying around their embattled governor, they abandoned him, then when two of his former friends and supporters challenged him in the primary, they caused him to use up resources that would have been valuable, and put to much better use, in the general election.

And now we have an upstart Republican operative, whose only experience has been as a campaign worker and who has no elective office background, wanting to challenge a popular incumbent in the primary?

This is insane. We are generally fans of Jennings and appreciate what he's done in the past, but we can't support any effort by him to challenge Whitfield. It just doesn't make sense.

If Jennings is hell-bent on running for Congress in his first race out of the chute, there are two Democrats representing Kentucky that need to be removed from the Capitol. Jennings should move to Louisville and take on John Yarmuth, before he becomes entrenched in that office. Anne Northup failed to dislodge Yarmuth from the seat he won from her in 2006; if Yarmuth isn't beaten this next time, he's probably going to be there for awhile to Kentucky's detriment.

Or he can move to Lexington or Frankfort and challenge Ben Chandler, who won a special election for Fletcher's old 6th District seat primarily on name recognition from their just-concluded gubernatorial battle and the famous moniker he carries, handed down from Grandpappy Happy. That might be a taller challenge than unseating Yarmuth, but it can be done by the right candidate with the right platform.

As long as Republicans continue to eat their own, they'll never come close to being a majority in this state. Party registration in Kentucky is such that in a statewide race, Democrats can splinter into two equal factions and their candidate can still beat the Republican. A split in the GOP equals disaster. A challenge by Jennings to Whitfield would no doubt split the Western Kentucky Republicans and possibly give the Democrat an easy walk to election.

When Republicans become the majority, then they can act like Democrats and have all kinds of family fights and hurt feelings. Right now, we don't have that luxury. Party unity, already reeling from the 2007 governor's race, is vital. A challenge from Jennings to Whitfield is something we can't afford. We urge Jennings to exercise good judgment and refrain from running against one of our incumbents. Yarmuth and Chandler need to go, Whitfield doesn't.

More on Beshear-Mongiardo rift: Political appointees reamed in employee meeting

Since our post yesterday on a rift between Gov. Steve Beshear and Lt. Gov. Dan Mongiardo, we've heard more evidence that supports that assertion. This story involves a political appointment in the mountains that didn't go the way Mongiardo and his supporters wanted.

We are hearing that the person Beshear appointed to the non-merit job last year, shortly after he took office in December 2007, was forced out by area political movers and shakers who wanted someone else in the position.

Both times the position was vacant, Mongiardo lobbied for a close personal associate, who was very well qualified professionally, to get the job.

The Mongiardo associate didn't get it the first time, and after the political power play got rid of Beshear's first appointment, Mongiardo lobbied once again for his associate to get the job. Once again, Mongiardo's advice and recommendation was rejected. Instead, the Beshear administration appointed someone from outside the area involved to fill the position on an interim basis.

A couple of Beshear appointees from that particular agency visited the office yesterday to introduce the interim appointee. The Mongiardo associate also works at that office as a merit system employee. During the introductory meeting, the passed-over Mongiardo-ite gave the Frankfort visitors a verbal reaming. We're told that it was an uncomfortable moment for the new appointee, the other employees in the room and especially the Beshear administration appointees.

We're hearing that this particular person's rejection for a non-merit appointment is not the cause of the Beshear-Mongiardo estrangement but rather is symptomatic of the situation. Mongiardo was promised a say in personnel decisions, and so far he hasn't been given that.

Update on timesheet fraud probe in Transportation Cabinet; and more misdeeds by patronage hires

Last May, we reported that Kentucky State Police were conducting interviews in connection with timesheet fraud by employees of a county garage in the Transportation Cabinet's Department of Highways.

Nine months later, the probe hasn't given birth to any indictments -- yet -- but there have been some actions taken as a result of the probe.

The employee responsible for the scheme was fired. Transportation took preliminary steps to fire another employee believed to be involved in the scandal, but scrapped those plans and welcomed him back when it was determined he had no involvement. And finally, the foreman at the garage in question was strongly encouraged to retire, and he heeded that advice.

We are hearing that criminal charge may yet be filed in this matter, but to date none have been.

In other news involving the Transportation Cabinet, an employee who is the grandson of a deceased longtime county Democrat chair and patronage boss in his native area was also given strong encouragement to resign earlier this month, and he heeded that advice. He was given that advice due to drug use, sleeping on the job and theft of state property. No charges are expected to be filed because he returned the missing property, but evidence of his other misdeeds was too great to be ignored.

This young man and the individuals referenced above in the timesheet were all products of the patronage system the Democrats have run in state government, especially in Transportation, for decades. The major qualification for all of them to be hired was the box they checked on their voter registration form.