KyKurmudgeon

Sunday’s column:

FRANKFORT — Robert Burns got it right about “The best laid schemes o’ mice an’ men.”

After addressing a few aspects of Beshear-Abramson 2011 in Wednesday’s column, this mouse’s scheme for Sunday involved letting Republican Sen. Charlie Borders’ resignation lead into a discussion of Democratic efforts to take back the state Senate. That, in turn, would lead to a few words about the ultimate prize at stake for both parties in next year’s Senate races: control of and/or influence over the legislative and congressional redistricting that will follow the 2010 census.

Ah, well. That scheme now must be shelved until another day.

For even though Gov. Steve Beshear’s gambit in appointing Borders to the Public Service Commission rippled Kentucky’s political waters last week, the waves kept churning around Louisville Mayor Jerry Abramson, who is expected to be introduced as Beshear’s 2011 running mate Monday.

Hallway chatter in Frankfort at week’s end had some elements of labor casting about for someone capable of taking a Beshear-Abramson ticket out in the Democratic primary. Such is their dislike for the erstwhile “Mayor for Life” of the state’s largest city.

I can’t see that happening. A bloody 2011 Democratic primary would play into Republican hands come that November.

But the mere fact that this daydreaming was occurring  suggests the backwash from Beshear’s choice could be considerably greater than he anticipated.

In Louisville, the Metro Council began taking an increasing interest in the secrecy about how a controversial forgivable loan of tax dollars the Abramson administration approved for a company developing an additional venue at 4th Street Live was spent.

And two African-American members of the state House from Louisville, Reps. Darryl Owens and Reginald Meeks, released a joint statement criticizing Abramson over a comment he made to a West Virginia newspaper in which he attributed the need for merging Louisville and Jefferson County governments in part to the city getting “poorer, blacker and older.”

By week’s end, I began to sense that a Beshear-Abramson 2011 ticket does far more for Abramson — by giving him an excuse not to run for re-election next year and risk being ridden out of office on a figurative rail — than it does for Beshear.

Because I’m still left with my initial question about this match-up:

What does Abramson bring to Beshear’s table that benefits the governor?

Not votes, that’s for sure. A running mate who alienates two core Democratic constituencies — labor and African-Americans — doesn’t bring votes to the table.

No, those constituencies won’t run to embrace a Republican candidate in November 2011. But they might sit at home, which could be just as damaging.

Fund-raising help? Yeah, there is that. In the private sector, Abramson would make a consummate salesman. So, he’s ideal for making a pitch to the money crowd.

But a sitting governor who hasn’t shot himself in both feet and at least three vital organs doesn’t need help raising dough. In politics, money flows toward incumbents like water down a drainpipe.

So, unless Beshear just finds the whole money-grubbing process distasteful and wants to dump it on someone else, adding Abramson’s fund-raising skills to his own is like unloading both barrels of the shotgun on one little varmint.

Best I can tell from deciphering the late-week chatter, what Abramson really brings to Beshear’s table is a comfortable fit. The two apparently get along well, which is not always the case in such political marriages.

Now, comfort is a good thing. I enjoy comfort. I wish I could enjoy more of it than I can afford right now. And that is the thing about comfort: It comes at a cost.

So, if Beshear and Abramson want to spend four comfortable years together after November 2011, it might be wise of them to spend some uncomfortable moments between now and then, the kind of uncomfortable moments that involve making amends and trying to keep core Democratic constituencies from sitting out an election.