Tuesday, 8 August 2006
Fancy Farm Coverup
While I was kept from attending Fancy Farm by a wedding in Paducah this weekend, I did get to read the story about Fancy Farm the following day in the Paducah Sun. The headline read "Grayson and Stumbo consider run for Governor".
The story mentions that Stumbo supporters had Stumbo 07 signs that didn't indicate the office he was running for. When asked by the Paducah Sun Reporter about it Stumbo admits he is thinking about running for Governor. Stumbo goes on to talk about how he got a good reception and how people want him to run for Governor. His comments make him appear that he is ready to run. I was stunned to read about all of this! Wow, this practically proves that Stumbo had a bit of a "conflict" when he over pursued Fletcher for misdemeanors violations that could have been resolved by the Personnel Board. To me this was the biggest story from Fancy Farm.
So, I get back home and read the coverage from the Courier Journal and Lexington Herald. There was almost no mention of Stumbo in either paper and his desire to run for Governor. Instead the focus was on Grayson thinking about running for Governor. The best we were treated about Stumbo was the last couple of paragraphs from the Courier's article.
After the speech, Stumbo said he came to Fancy Farm and other events to "test the waters" for a possible campaign for governor.
Although the executive branch ethics commission has said it would be a conflict of interest for Stumbo to run after launching the hiring investigation, Stumbo said a campaign for governor is allowable under a recent court ruling removing him personally from the case.
Last week, however, he repeated recent comments that he has no plans "at this time" to run for governor next year.
And of course his statements are couched by Stumbo's recent "statements". I was amazed that he used the recent court ruling that removed him from the case because of "conflict of interest" as cover for running for Governor. In fact that conflict of interest is why the whole prosecution of Fletcher stinks! Where is the Courier in asking the obvious follow up questions? Why is this at the end of the story?
It is becoming clearer every day that Stumbo is planning a run for Governor and he is using his office as a political platform for the run. Let's examine the facts:
- Stumbo goes "Ahab" in an attempt to bring down Fletcher to open up a chance for him to win the Governorship.
- He attacks Fletcher/Rudolph by making ridiculous claims about state law in the case of the Murray St Board.
- Now his office is attacking Grayson just days after Grayson's announcement at Fancy Farm about a possible run for Governor. The latest is because the Secretary of State for "illegally" purged voter rolls. A fact that even the election board has denied
Katie Dunnigan, an attorney for the board, said it does not need to specifically authorize such voter purges. She said Grayson was authorized under state law to maintain updated voter rolls.
- In addition, We are beginning to see him go after "gas companies" for price gouging. Even though it looks like there is no evidence to support such a claim.
"Yesterday's (Thursday's) retail gas prices shot up while wholesale prices fell," Attorney General Greg Stumbo said in a news release. "Today we have sent subpoenas for Speedway stores across Kentucky requiring explanation of this price spike. Speedway is a trend setter in gas pricing across the Commonwealth."
Linda Casey, a spokeswoman for Marathon Oil Co., which owns Speedway stores in Kentucky, said Speedway would "cooperate in every way" with the attorney general's office.
"I can tell you that our increase was due to the rapidly increasing wholesale cost of gasoline from Tuesday and Wednesday," she said. That increase didn't carry over to the retail prices until Thursday, she said.
"We're cooperating in the investigation, and I believe that our records will demonstrate that yesterday's increase was warranted," she said.
How many more data points to we need before it becomes obvious to the media that Stumbo has consistently used his office to further his own political ambitions. And it is even move obvious that he went after Fletcher not because he has a respect for the law (Ask his children about that), but that he was trying to eliminate a political opponent.
Instead of questioning the motives of Stumbo, the local papers are praising him for his attacks on the Republicans. They are sheltering him from obvious conflicts of interest stories. Why? Because these facts don't fit into the template that Fletcher is guilty and Stumbo is just "doing his job".
In fact the real conspiracy is the Democrats and media conspiring to create a propaganda machine that is very one sided.
The worst part of it is Republicans are falling for the propaganda. Steve Pence, David Williams, Jack Richardson, and now Grayson have all fallen prey to the message machine and have started trashing the Governor when they should be turning their guns on the real perpetrators: Democrats and the media.
Of course, Fletcher has not helped himself any with his current bunker mentality. The time is right. He needs to come out and start fighting. He needs to take his message to the people. Before the Democrat and media's propaganda machine becomes unstoppable.
