Dear Courier-Journal: Ernie Fletcher isn't governor anymore
It seems someone forgot to tell the Courier-Journal that Ernie Fletcher isn't governor anymore and they can quit beating up on him.
In a "scoop" of less than monumental proportions today, the Louisville Birdcage Liner & Puppy Training Pad reports the the Pikeville hospital that recently hired Fletcher as a consultant received a large Medicaid settlement in October.
Immediately assuming the worst, the C-J sent hitman and hitwoman Tom Loftus and Debbie Yetter out to do another character assassination piece on the former governor.
What a colossal waste of time and ink. There is absolutely nothing fishy going on here.
For one thing, the payment was made in October, nearly a full month before the November election in which Fletcher lost his bid for another term.
And something else: In December, shortly before leaving office, Fletcher interviewed for a job out-of-state, long before the Pikeville consulting job was offered.
But perhaps the most telling fact in this matter is who defended Fletcher.
Masten Childers II spoke on behalf of Pikeville Medical Center and said he personally negotiated the settlement with the Cabinet for Health and Family Services and that the governor's office had nothing to do with it.
Childers is one of the most partisan Democrat hacks you'll find east of I-75. He was a high-ranking official in Brereton Jones' administration, having served as secretary of the Cabinet for Human Resources during Jones' term. Childers would have no reason whatsoever to defend Ernie Fletcher if what he says isn't the truth.
Instead of continuing to beat a former governor, perhaps the C-J should turn its' reporters crack investigative skills on all the wrongdoing and fishy actions being taken in the current administration. Should Mr. Loftus or Ms. Yetter wish to contact us, we can give them probably a half-dozen leads that will lead to great stories if they only desire to look and do a little digging.
We'll check our e-mail (ky_pac2@yahoo.com) tomorrow but we don't expect a request for leads.
posted by K-Pac II @ 10:27 AM
1 comments
1 Comments:
Sorry, Kentucky Pachyderm, but your investigative skills leave much to be desired. The CJ scooped you because there IS much to be read beneath the surface of this story. Ernie can say that he didn't know anything about this deal and his signature may not be found on anything, but it's difficult to spend $16 million dollars of pure state money without the Gov knowing it and blessing it. Why pure state money? Because Birdwhistell and then Medicaid Commissioner Shawn Crouch (who is also part of the "consulting group" of Birdwhistell and Fletcher) didn't follow the standard process of settlement, so the federal government refused to pay any money at all when they normally pay 70% of the check. That was our tax dollars and nothing else. And now Birdwhistell, Fletcher, and Crouch (a Republican consulting group in a state with a Democratic governor) all have a lucrative consulting job with Pikeville Methodist (a consulting job even though it has been demonstated that not only did they NOT fix Medicaid, but lied about the fact that it WASN'T fixed)? And what about all the other hospitals in the state who will be coming with there hand out wanting a piece of the pie now? It's called setting a precedent. As for Maston Childers, would you be surprised to know that he was hanging around CHFS for many, many months before any sort of settlements were negotiated? Why don't you use your crack investigative skills and figure out why? While your at it, why don't you investigate the timing of Glenn Jenning's departure from Medicaid and his replacement in the form of Birdwhistells right hand, Shawn Crouch? After all, the Medicaid Commissioner DOES have to sign off on these "settlements." It doesn't take any sort of conspiracy theorist to smell something rotten in the Commonwealth of Kentucky.
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