Every scandal deserves its own name, a la the FBI’s Operation BOPTROT investigation that snared legislators and lobbyists in the early 1990s or former Gov. Ernie Fletcher’s BlackBerry Jam hiring mess.
Frankfort’s current scandal also stems from the Fletcher administration. An FBI investigation of Transportation Cabinet activity during Fletcher’s one term in office has led to the indictment of former cabinet Secretary Bill Nighbert, road contractor Leonard Lawson and Brian Billings, one of Lawson’s employees.
According to the indictments, former cabinet official James Rummage obtained confidential cost estimates for proposed road projects and provided them to Lawson either directly or through Nighbert. The indictments allege that Lawson gave Rummage a total of $20,000 in cash and funneled money to Nighbert through an Eastern Kentucky utility management company.
So, what to name this scandal? Well, a phrase Herald-Leader contributing columnist Larry Webster used in a recent column about the investigation seems to have caught on with some folks in Frankfort. Webster opened that column by saying, “The phrase ‘rummage sale’ takes on new meaning.” Now, I’m hearing Capitol hallway references to the scandal being a “Rummage Sale.”
Sounds highly appropriate to me. Anyone have any better ideas?
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.
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