Welcome to the big leagues, Greg Stumbo

We welcome Greg Stumbo's entry into big-time Kentucky gubernatorial politics by signing on as Bruce Lunsford's running mate.

Not only does this offer us an excellent chance to get Stumbo out of public life in Kentucky, but it will provide ample opportunities to let the people of this state know just what kind of despicable person he is.

Stumbo has signed onto Bruce Lunsford's ticket as the Louisville millionaire's running mate. Lunsford ran for the Democrat nomination for governor in 2003, but withdrew a week before the primary election and threw his support to Jody Richards. That move nearly led to Richards defeating Ben Chandler for the Democrat nomination, but it didn't quite do the job.

Lunsford was the victim of one of the most mean-spirited hatchet job political ads this state has ever seen. The Chandler camp ran an ad basically blaming Lunsford personally because a patient was allegedly abused in one of the nursing homes Lunsford owned. We saw a great comment on another blog about this situation and we'll shamefully recycle it here. Blaming Lunsford for that situation is like blaming Bill Gates personally if Windows crashes and you lose all your important documents.

Because of that unfair negative ad, Lunsford refused to support Chandler in the 2003 general election and in fact, he endorsed Ernie Fletcher. Many Democrats have not forgiven him for that. They believe that this state and country are too partisan, except when a Democrat supports a Republican. Then they think it's an unpardonable sin.

So now Lunsford, who has a lot of Democrats still angry with him, has paired up with Stumbo, who angered Democrats by dismissing the misdemeanor charges against Fletcher that resulted from the merit system hiring persecution. And to add insult to injury, the pair's announcement will be overshadowed in the news cycles by the euthanization of Kentucky Derby winner Barbaro.

Stumbo certainly isn't a spotless candidate. And with his presence on a gubernatorial ticket, those imperfections are going to come to the surface.

Anyone familiar with Stumbo knows of the controversy surrounding an out-of-wedlock child he fathered in the 1980s. The mother of the child was forced to go to court to get Stumbo to pay child support. After she sued him for child support, he turned around and sued her, claiming she was trying to extort him and harm him politically.

We'll leave the judgments on Stumbo's marital infidelity to others, although we're sure the "Clinton was impeached over oral sex" crowd will not grasp the significance of Stumbo's situation, either. What concerns us is his use of the legal system as his own vehicle for personal revenge.

This issue didn't get the airing it deserved during Stumbo's run for attorney general, in part because AG isn't as high profile a position as a gubernatorial slate is, and also because the GOP's AG nominee had plenty of baggage of his own.

But with Stumbo on a ticket for the state's number two elected position, we expect his child support issues will come front and center. We think most Kentuckians will react with disgust when they find out that Stumbo was a deadbeat dad who had to be ordered by a court to pay child support for his own son, and they'll respond with anger when they learn that Stumbo sued the mother of his child for harassment because she had the audacity to go to court to get child support which was rightly due her and her son.

We welcome the upcoming virtual rectal examination Stumbo's going to get. It will expose him for the scum that he is, and with a lot of luck, come December he will be retired from public service and off the public payroll from now on.