KyKurmudgeon

Sunday’s column:

This and that as the roars of the convention crowds fade:

For months, the rumors persisted: A federal grand jury investigating Transportation Cabinet activity during former Gov. Ernie Fletcher’s administration would issue indictments soon.

But the rumored date of jury action kept getting pushed back. From June to early July. From early July to the first week of August. From the first week of August to early September.

Wednesday, the rumor became reality when the grand jury issued a 22-page indictment accusing former Transportation Cabinet Secretary Bill Nighbert, highway contractor Leonard Lawson and Brian Billings, one of Lawson’s employees, of conspiring with “others, known and unknown” to commit a variety of crimes related to an alleged bid-rigging scheme.

Other than adding Billings’ name to the discussion and providing several excerpts from taped phone conversations between Lawson and former cabinet official James Rummage, who is cooperating with the investigation, the indictment didn’t advance public knowledge about the case beyond what was contained in an affidavit the FBI filed in federal court last month to obtain a search warrant.

The gist of the case is relatively simple. Nighbert allegedly had Rummage obtain the cabinet’s confidential estimates of proposed road projects’ cost and give the estimates either to Lawson directly or to Nighbert, who then gave them to Lawson.

In return, Lawson allegedly gave Rummage a total of $20,000 in cash and funneled a total of more than $67,000 to Nighbert through an Eastern Kentucky utilities management company.

According to the indictment, the obstruction of justice charges stemmed from alleged efforts by Lawson, Billings and Nighbert to influence what information Rummage provided to investigators.

Attorneys for the three men professed their clients’ innocence. And Howard Mann, Nighbert’s attorney, indicated that one line of defense will be to attack the credibility of Rummage, who “admitted lying on multiple occasions.”

According to the indictment and the earlier affidavit, Rummage acknowledged lying to representatives from the cabinet’s inspector general’s office and initially to FBI investigators. Later, he retracted those statements and agreed to cooperate. So, jurors may not find him to be the most credible of witnesses.

Prosecutors obviously have tapes of a number of Rummage’s telephone conversations. And the wording of the indictment suggests meetings that Rummage had with Billings were conducted under surveillance.

Still, with Rummage’s credibility subject to attack, it seems to these lay eyes that the prosecution’s case could be helped greatly if some of those other “known” conspirators agree to testify.

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Two months ago, Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell’s approval ratings in a SurveyUSA poll of Kentuckians stood at 57 percent.

In the SurveyUSA poll released last week, his approval rating had dropped to 44 percent. Worse for him, his disapproval rating was at 47 percent.

Democratic Senate candidate Bruce Lunsford’s campaign to unseat McConnell has been less than awe-inspiring. But with McConnell favorables dropping so precipitously in two months, the multimillionaire Louisville businessman may still have a chance to make this a real race.