The "Beshear About Wasting Money in Kentucky" tour

When a member of Kentucky's federal delegation -- a senator or a representative -- holds a town meeting, there usually isn't a big entourage accompanying him (and that isn't a sexist term since both of Kentucky's senators and all six representatives are male) to the remote location.

The official will have a handful of staff members accompanying him -- a driver, perhaps two or three others -- and that's pretty much it, except for the little table in the corner.

There, two or three of the Congress member's field staff will sit to take questions and respond to complaints or requests from constituents.

The whole group can be accommodated in two, maybe three vehicles.

Certainly three planes aren't needed to, say, fly Ben Chandler from Lexington to Irvine or Danville for town meetings, or Hal Rogers from Somerset to Pikeville.

Much has been made of all the cabinet secretaries and high-level agency staffers accompanying Gov. Steve Beshear to his town hall in Pikeville, but that doesn't even begin to scratch the surface.

At these meetings, personnel from each individual cabinet are required to attend and set up a table to take comments and complaints from attendees. The mainstream press, which has rightly criticized the governor for the excess in his current "Beshear About Kentucky" tour, hasn't even touched on this.

When the statewide "Trying to Get My Approval Ratings Out of the Cellar 2008 Bluegrass Tour" is over, some prescient reporter -- and Ryan Alessi and Joe Gerth, we know you read us -- ought to file an open records request for all overtime accrued by all state employees required to attend this after-hours statewide extravaganza.

If a senator or congressman can handle constituent issues with two or three people at a town meeting, why does the Beshear administration need dozens of state employees to do the same thing? Is one reason that it allows them to pad their attendance estimates?

Steve Beshear -- exceeding expectations for incompetence on a daily basis.