Sunday’s column:
FRANKFORT — This and that as Gov. Steve Beshear’s “Please Help Me My Ratings Have Fallen” tour gets underway:
OK, it’s officially the “Beshear About Kentucky” tour. But by whatever name, it will be coming soon to a town near you.
Counting Thursday night’s kickoff in Pikeville, Beshear will make 13 stops over the next six weeks to hear what Kentuckians have to say about how the state can do more with less.
My first suggestion would be to stop taking three planes full of aides on this tour.
After limping through his first legislative session with little success, Beshear rebounded a bit by staring down the Council on Postsecondary Education on the selection of a new president, by getting lawmakers to come together on pension reform and by using the power of the pen on executive orders to reorganize the executive branch and set some new policies for it to follow.
(In that regard, the quick response of his newly reconstituted Kentucky Horse Racing Authority in addressing controversies in the racing industry has been particularly noteworthy and encouraging.)
Then, toward the end of a week in which energy conservation was a major topic around the Capitol, including his own press conference encouraging state employees to carpool and work flex time where possible, the governor blows a wad of tax dollars and a few tanks of fuel to make Kentucky’s carbon footprint even larger by flying staffers to Pikeville and back.
Surely, someone in the administration heard the dumb meter go off before this tone-deaf flight of fancy occurred.
It’s bad enough that this tour is all too reminiscent of the “Tell Me How to Spend a Surplus That Doesn’t Exist” tour of the state former Gov. Ernie Fletcher took in an unsuccessful attempt to win re-election. By kicking it off with a three-plane flyover of the state, Beshear just added to the list of what I have come to think of as his Stevie Wandering missteps – as in, where the heck was his mind wandering when he decided that was a bright idea?
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Even before the aerial circus, Beshear’s recent positive accomplishments were being undermined by his administration’s lack of adequate vetting of James F. Sullivan, who was recently appointed to the Crime Victim Compensation Board and the Board of Claims.
Sullivan was convicted of a misdemeanor in 1990 for attempted jury tampering in former state Rep. Jerry Lundergan’s 1989 trial. That’s a rather unusual qualification for a member of these panels to have.
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State Rep. Kathy Stein’s decision to run for the Senate seat being vacated by Sen. Ernesto Scorsone will leave the House in need of a new Judiciary Committee chairman come January. No doubt there will be more than one applicant pleading their case with the Democratic leadership.
But Judiciary is the traditional cemetery for bad bills and, therefore, demands a certain skill set of its chairman. To keep such legislation “resting peacefully,” as the late Rep. Gross Clay Lindsay used to say when he chaired the committee, it is best to have a chairman with a relatively safe seat and a strong spinal column.
I don’t know if he wants the job, but Rep. Darryl Owens of Louisville fits those characteristics.
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.
By today’s standards Sullivan would be a felon. The Governor really needs to look closely at Frank Shoop’s do list.
The governor needs someone whose sole job is manning the dumb meter.
ldk
I knew it was there! He just had not lost it yet.
IMO, The comments the Governor has made regarding the story in the Herald Leader is a “pissed off” Governor due to getting bad press for a dumb outlandish idea.
I knew Steve Beshear was thin skin and sooner or later he would explode. His remarks on the blog show it.
If this Governor does not understand we are suffering, the citizens, with gas at 4.00 and milk very near the same. He has cut programs and underfunded, in an effort to gain more revenue. And the rate of retirement, you know the magic pill for adding more revenue to the General Fund,is just plain Bull Dunk.
I don’t now about other readers but, I am an ordinary citizen with a fixed income. I have had to cut expenses due to the high cost of gasoline and food.
For a Governor to come up with a CHARADE LIKE THIS IS JUST PLAIN . . .hard to accept. His arrogance about future flights and the Cabinet is just another opportunity for this Governor to get out and try to improve his rating numbers. He has a way to go. And, not a single person to blame but himself. After all, he is the Chief Executive Officer. But, like most Governors they feel the postition entitles them to some special consideration even if that special consideration is just plain wrong headed as viewed by THE PUBLIC.
FACT. Cabinet Secretaries is just a forest to disguise Beshear’s needs to bring the Assembly together for the MIRACLE. Cabinet Secretaries do not issue policy or approprate money. They wait for the Governor to call THE SLOTS, ERRRR S H O T S.
GAMBLING CASINOS? He better think about that again, as most of the expansions in Vegas are being delayed due to the LOSS OF GAMBLING MONEY which NEVADA gets from people that are enticed to a modern day GAMBLING DISNEY WORLD.
I don’t feel sorry for the owners in VEGAS.
Jeez, how long have then been robbing their citizens and the tourist?
And, GAMBLING - in nearby INDIANA - IS DOWN TOO. You know the adjoing state where many claim the KENTUCKY INCOME in INDIANA- VIA GAMBLING -IS CLOSE TO ONE BILLION DOLLARS.
So, please . . . don’t pretend to be taking YOUR HIGHEST OFFICIALS on a statewide tour. It has nothing to do with listening to the citizens of Kentucky. It is all about political posturing for the next GENERAL ASSEMBLY.
Yes, Governor Beshear does have thin skin and don’t expect his recent words to be the end of it. He can not control what newspapers and TV publish, regardless of his political power.
I am not math expert but by the time this group visits 13 towns, if the cost is the same as the last, then . . . that puts the travel bill at over $100,000. And, that does not include the trip to Japan that was not necessary, But . . he did bring us good news. Now when will these two AUTOMOTIVE PROJECTS FROM JAPAN TURN GROUND?
Jim Anderson Stivers
Frankfort, KY.
I agree about the dumb meter needing to be checked. However, even if the governor doesn’t have someone doing that job, you would think that whoever was responsible for vetting appointments would have stopped the horrendous and embarrassing Sullivan appointments.
There are those in the administration who would agree that the vetting of Sullivan was lacking.
ldk
Frank Shoop:
When did Frank Shoop become a political head for making suggestions to the Governor?
Answer: The last time he raised and donated a bunch of cash to our present administration.
Who is Frank Shoop?
A used car salesman from Georgetown.
Is anything going to be done about the Sullivan appointments, or about the person, people or processes that let them be made?
That was perhaps the most foolish and inexcusable mistake the Beshear administration has made so far. Equally inexcusable is the failure to fix it by now.
Amused,
I have heard of no corrective action being taken.
ldk
When the Governor (?) of KY made a decision to only lower the flag for those born in KY, he made a bad decision. He should ask himself if the soldiers only fight for the state they are from or if they fight for everyone. This is an embarrassment when he chooses to dishonor those who have served and I apologize to the family for his poor judgement and lack of breeding.
Sue Cardwell: are other states lowering their flags for Kentuckians? I didn’t think so. With the flags at half mast every day, do you ever know who is being honored at any given time? No, I didn’t think so.