Rumored KDP changes: Good for Dems or blessing in disguise for RPK?

We admit to not being fans of Jacob Payne at Page One Kentucky. We don't like the way he deletes comments, bans commenters and tries to out anonymous posters when they challenge his opinions or assertions or voice disagreement with him. And we also don't agree with his sexual politics, which way too often rise to front and center on his blog.

But we will begrudgingly give him credit for breaking some stories that the old-fashioned media didn't get around to until later. (Hey, we've done the same thing yet no one seems to care. Perhaps that's because the stories we present as exclusives tend to be those embarrassing tales about Democrats that their protectors in the old-fashioned press don't want to cover. Where else, for instance, have you read the names of any of the members of the special grand jury in the personnel investigation besides here? But that's a lament for another day).

One of the things Payne's been reporting for several weeks now is that during tomorrow's state Democrat committee meeting, Jennifer Moore will be ousted as state party chair and other leaders will be shown the door as well. (However, statements by Beshear administration insiders and party officials in the last few days contradict that prediction).

Payne has also reported that the KDP will hire a professional executive director and the successful candidate will be found in a nationwide search and probably not be a Kentuckian.

Democrats are upset that B. Hussein Obama did not carry Kentucky, they failed to oust Sen. Mitch McConnell, and they made no headway in picking up congressional and state legislature seats. They blame the party leadership and think a change at the top is necessary.

While Payne and others of like mind may think an outsider as executive director might be just what the KDP needs, the reality is that such a move is likely to backfire and play into the hands of Kentucky Republicans, who are pleased to have held their own in this fall's elections and are looking forward to 2010 and beyond.

The last thing Kentucky's Democrat apparatus needs to do is shift further to the left. Should this happen, Kentucky Republicans stand to make great gains.

The reason John McCain beat Obama in Kentucky is not because Kentuckians are racists, as Payne proclaims at every opportunity while banning posters to his blog who claim otherwise. The reason is that Kentucky Democrats are much more conservative than Democrats in places such as New York, California and Massachusetts, both socially and fiscally, and Obama was too liberal for them.

People like Payne, Joe Sonka at Barefoot and Progressive, and BluegrassRoots posters like "Yellow Dog" and "RDemocrat" and "SarahG" are not representative of Kentuckians at large. (Not to mention the whole bunch at Ditch Mitch.) If an outside administrator is imported to run the KDP, no doubt people like those just mentioned will press him or her to move the party leftward.

That would be a disaster for the KDP and a blessing for the RPK, who would most certainly make welcome those offended and disgusted by the liberal shift. Hopefully, in the coming year when there are no elections on the calendar, the RPK will be making a major push to convince conservative Democrats to leave the party that doesn't espouse their beliefs and join the Republicans.

A campaign to move the KDP in that direction would be a blessing for Republican recruitment effort.

Maybe Jennifer Moore is incompetent. We don't know. We tend to think that being a Democrat is both a sign of ignorance or stupidity (or both) and a character flaw on top of that. But if Democrats want to alienate their own, they're better off angering people like Payne and Sonka and the pseudonymic out-of-touch libs at BGR than the vast majority of registered Democrats. Kentucky isn't California, and Louisville isn't San Francisco. That should be Lesson One for the KDP hierarchy going forward.

A KDP leader brought in from out of state? Please, don't throw us Republicans in that briar patch!