Today’s column:
FRANKFORT — Gov. Ernie Fletcher lost any chance for re-election during a span of about 15 hours in late August 2005.
On the evening of Aug. 29, Fletcher held his little Pardonin’ Pep Rally in the Capitol Rotunda to announce that he was granting immunity from prosecution to all of his aides and friends in the BlackBerry Jam hiring scandal.
The next morning, the governor, who initially pledged to seek the “unvarnished truth” about hiring practices in his administration, instead exercised his Fifth Amendment right not to incriminate himself during a two-minute, 18-second appearance before the special Franklin County grand jury investigating allegations of merit system abuses.
Subsequent events — including his indictment and the deal he cut to get the charges against himself dismissed — provided extra nails for Fletcher’s political coffin. But his future had already been determined before the indictment and deal.
His approval rating essentially remained flat-lined below 40 percent, occasionally dipping into the 20s, from August 2005 right up through this campaign. Nothing he did moved the numbers, not even the shameless, desperate pandering to bigotry and intolerance that Kentucky voters witnessed in the closing days of this gubernatorial campaign.
A governor who issues a pre-emptive blanket pardon to protect his cronies and then takes the Fifth himself cannot expect a majority of voters to forgive and forget come time for re-election. What he can expect is to get booted out of office, and emphatically so.
Fletcher and some of his closest advisers may well go to their graves believing he was the victim of a political witch hunt.
But Fletcher was not done in by Attorney General Greg Stumbo, whose office conducted the investigation; nor by the grand jury members he publicly vilified and insulted until they had no reason to show him leniency; nor even by the media that chronicled the hiring scandal.
Fletcher did himself in, with lots of help from his close advisers, by deciding during the course of that first week of the hiring probe that the “unvarnished truth” be damned.
Instead of cooperating, slapping a few hands and putting this episode quickly behind him, he opted to fight the investigation with every means at his disposal; issue the blanket pardon once the indictments started piling up and former Transportation Cabinet official Dan Druen appeared ready to deal with prosecutors; try to work out a “Who do we throw under the bus?” deal with Stumbo; stack the state Supreme Court to get a ruling in his favor; and, in effect, cop a plea to get rid of his own indictments.
All he accomplished with the variety of tactics he employed over the course of the 18-month investigation was to make himself look desperate to keep the truth hidden. And such desperation creates the perception of guilt.
Simply put, the course of actions Fletcher and his advisers came up with in response to the investigation bordered on political lunacy. Through his own ineptitude and that of his staff, he took what should have been a two-week story and turned it into his personal political obituary.
Larry Dale Keeling, a columnist for the Lexington Herald-Leader, has spent most of his 35-plus years in journalism reporting on or writing editorials and columns about Kentucky’s politics and political issues. He now brings his experience and expertise on those topics to the KyKurmudgeon blog.
Now that your buddy Fletcher is gone, why don’t you go after all incumbants on the national level for failing to allow off-shore drilling for oil since the early 80’s and not loosening the restrictions on building refineries…If you would “Google” off shore oil and naturael gas deposits or inventories you will find enough to last us for the foreseeable future. This would dry up the imports to a trickle, give us more of a leverage on the terrorism front, and save the economy….Opps forgot to mention that the oil industry has given the political parties over 190 million dollars since 1990..Do the math..I say this but then you probably enjoy paying over 3.00 for a gallon of gas…
While Gov. Fletcher exercised his right to commit political suicide, the question left unanswered is why did the electorate sit by benignly and not demand or effect his removal from office.
What is it about Kentucky culture that caused its citizens to continue to endure for three long years the shame of a governor gone wrong? Was no member of the public aware that his shame reflected on them, too?
Clearly, Kentuckians as a whole have no stomach for individual political confrontation. That is left to a political class, which itself is different and segmented from the general population. Thank God for the secret ballot.
Also clear is that Kentuckians will take action only when they can act anonymously within the safety of a social or religious group. The group dynamic supercedes. No individual responsibility is required.
Does this not betray a certain spinelessness in the Kentucky character? And is it not too unlike the spinelessness found to be repellent in a governor unwilling to accept individual responsibility for his actions?
One would think so. But then, consideration must be given for what Kentuckians will fight. Personal liberty is fundamental to the Kentucky character. Since the time of the long rifle and Kentucky sharpshooter, Kentuckians freely, willingly, and generously have risked the loss of their own personal identity to defend freedom. That individual voice has proved more reliable and more enduring than any voice of any political leader.
For six years, flags in Kentucky have been at half staff almost perpetually. We identify those individuals by name who sacrificed themselves to remove threats to our liberties. Why can we not identify one individual by name among our populace who called for the removal of Fletcher’s threat to our liberty and his threat to the stability of our government?
Perhaps it is because the little boy in the schoolyard, who saw himself bullied by his community, and who grew up to surround himself with bullies of his own and to become a governor who made ridicule of our laws, was a threat to himself only. You don’t remove children because they’ve been bad. You discipline them. We all prayed that child would grow up and learn, but not be done in by his own actions.
“Simply put, the course of actions Fletcher and his advisers came up with in response to the investigation bordered on political lunacy. Through his own ineptitude and that of his staff, he took what should have been a two-week story and turned it into his personal political obituary.”
YEP. Well stated.
http://OsiSpeaks.com or http://OsiSpeaks.org
LDK: You are so BIASED and so FULL OF YOURSELF!! Your little commentary is totally lacking in objectivity and is little more than a rationalization of the hateful smear campaign that you willingly joined with the corrupt Stumbo.
Could Fletcher have been more savvy? You bet! Was this witch hunt in the best interest of Kentucky?! Absolutely NOT!
No one can blame the individuals on the grand jury who were spoonfed only what Stumbo and his co-conspirators wanted them to see and hear. They served well. But Stumbo and his and Beshear’s good ole buddy, ex-judge Graham, orchestrated this “scandal” over minor infractions which could be done with ANY administration in human history! What they cost our state is the real scandal!
The CONSTANT barrage of bad press that blew this out of proportion to all reasonableness would have destroyed any administration. The accomplishments of the Fletcher administration while enduring this absurd melodrama is nothing short of miraculous!
Your attempts to gloss over your disgusting role in smearing good public servants is in itself disgusting! Hang it up, Larry! Or at least be as cynical and obnoxious in critiquing the Beshear administration!
Two week story my eye!! That is garbage, Keeling! There is NO WAY that Stumbo and the Herald Leader were going to let this non-story die! There is no better example of this than the absolute low point in so many journalistic nadirs, at which the H-L displayed a bold headline naming Mrs. Fletcher for recommending someone for a job!!
You guys give muckrakers a bad name!! And, your “blame it all on Ernie” attempt to assuage your guilt won’t work. Your decision is to admit your sins or to go to your grave as a miserable old coot who did little in life except to help bring good people down! What a great legacy! If I were you, I would get some serious religion, or kill myself!
Keeling: If you are going to run a blog to respond to your rants, at least allow a timely posting! It may take DAYS for a post to show up, if at all! Or is that just true for the ones that attempt to hold you accountable?!