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.