Comic relief in the Democratic primary

Even though it's no longer Miller time in the Democratic race for governor, there's still plenty of comic relief to be found as now the field that was aptly described by a commenter on one of the liberal blogs as "seven dog t*rds" has been reduced by one.

We now have six dwarfs -- or dog t*rds if you prefer -- but the rhetoric will no doubt increase as the number of wannabes has decreased.

Among the comments that we had a good chuckle about was one made by an ex-governor who has a son on one of the tickets.

John Y. Brown III is Jody Richards' running mate. That slate, of course, is now in fourth place in the polls, trailing the Steve Beshear/Dan Mongiardo ticket.

Brown's father, John Y. Brown Jr., was governor of Kentucky from 1979 to 1983. Beshear served as attorney general during those four years. Beshear was lieutenant governor from 1983 to 1987, during Martha Layne Collins' term. In 1987, Lt. Gov. Beshear and former Gov. Brown fought a vicious battle for the Democratic nomination and their mud-slinging enabled the wealthy underdog, Wallace Wilkinson, to escape the fray and win the nomination.

Brown Jr. has been supporting his son's bid by taking potshot after potshot at Beshear. After yesterday's announcement when Jonathan Miller dropped out to support Beshear, Brown Jr. went on the offensive again, calling Beshear "an empty suit" and "a wimp."

That ingrate. Doesn't Brown Jr. realize that Beshear probably kept him from being indicted?

We refer, of course, to the myriad of merit system violations that occurred in the Brown administration. Whereas Ernie Fletcher's administration has only been accused of firing ONE merit employee (and one who was not yet off probation, either, and could be dismissed for any reason or no reason at all), Brown's administration fired dozens of merit employees who were protected by KRS 18A.

Those employees went through the administrative process (the Personnel Board) and the courts to get their jobs back. Steve Beshear, as attorney general, did not prosecute those violations -- in other words, he did the exact opposite thing that Greg Stumbo has done in the current administration.

For whatever reason Beshear chose not to prosecute those violations (and we are still waiting for the press to ask him that question), Brown Jr. was the beneficiary of Beshear's largesse.

And John Y. keeps calling Beshear names? Has the man no gratitude?

Oh well, we hope he keeps it up. Dog t*rds usually stink, and the smell from this field of Democrats is so bad we need something to make us laugh.