Friday, 25 August 2006

Civil War V - Return of the Governor

What effect will the end of the battle between Fletcher and Stumbo have on the Republican Party civil war that is underway? So far the only one to speak up has been Jefferson County Republican (non) leader Jack Richardson.

"The merit (investigation) is only one of many political missteps," Richardson said. "If it were just this, it would be a different matter. But it's not just this and that's what's so important."

Grayson said the deal should have been reached 16 months ago and still wants to run. But on Francine's show today he was hedging on that decision claiming the Governor is still a force to be reckoned with and will be difficult to beat.

For me the silence is deafening. This ruling was a definite blow to the insurgency that wanted to replace Fletcher. The more this dragged on the stronger the calls to replace Fletcher would have been. Instead, Fletcher is now free of an investigation and has a year to consolidate his power for a primary.

At this point, I doubt any serious candidates will challenge Fletcher for the nomination. I suspect that those who were part of the rebellion will just sit on their hands and watch the upcoming election and then say "I told you so" if Fletcher loses.

I think it is safe to say the civl war has, for now at least, come to an end.

Posted by elendil at 3:16 PM in Kentucky Politics
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The Left's Meltdown over the Fletcher / Stumbo Agreement

I must admit that I had a good laugh this morning watching the left lose it.They are in utter meltdown mode over this agreement. They thought they had a Republican Governor tried and convicted before the legal process was even engaged. Now they are left with nothing and they are really pissed.

Their deal, revealed yesterday, was struck in the political interest of two people -- and the public be damned. As a result of their joint sellout and cover up, Mr. Stumbo will now be able to run for governor and Dr. Fletcher can claim vindication and run for re-election....

Mr. Stumbo said, "Our objective was to see that the law was complied with, to see that the truth was brought forward."

He failed, utterly, and by an act of commission, not omission. His surrender, despite all that the grand jury and his office had done, was complete.

Ahhh, I love the smell of vitriol in the morning. Poor Stumbo is getting crucified because the object of their hate, Fletcher, has not been "brought to justice". Just the other day he was the toast of the town. Doing what is "right". Now he is another "partisan hack". The irony is just too much. Of course in their blind rage they just flat out lie.

His (Fletcher's) biggest project -- the one in which he has invested the most energy, creativity and commitment -- has been hiding the dirty work done by the pietistic personal courtiers and Republican Party hacks whom he charged with building and operating a political patronage infrastructure.

Um, no. How about the restructuring of the entire state government. How about overhauling in the state tax code. Those are a bit bigger projects than defending himself from an overzealous prosecutor and his friends in the drive by media.

But of course the media must cover up for their righteousness over the pronouncements of Fletcher's guilt in this case.

That was clear when the Governor's lawyer, Steve Pitt, instantly pronounced exoneration. He said, "Prosecutors do not dismiss cases that they can win, particularly three months after the indictment is rendered. They knew they didn't have the proof."

Actually, what Kentucky doesn't have is the truth, the rule of law and an attorney general to enforce it.

The dirty secret in all of this is that Stumbo's case against Fletcher was tenuous at best. They may have had proof against Brock, Nightbert, and others but they didn't really have anything to tie directly to Fletcher. Instead of admitting this, the left goes on about "covering up" evidence. And now we will never know the truth!

The fact of the matter is they had built this up so much and made Fletcher look so guilty, that anything other than a conviction was a travesty of justice. Personally, I think it is funny that their house of cards is crumbling around them.

Now, thanks to the Fletcher-Stumbo deal, there will be no trial, no accounting. The public won't learn the truth. The Governor had already pardoned everybody else involved. And yesterday's deal, in effect, pardons him.....

Together, Gov. Ernie Fletcher and Attorney General Greg Stumbo have managed to disserve the people of Kentucky, frustrate the justice system, set all the wrong precedents for dealing with official wrongdoing and make the already foul merit hiring scandal smell even worse.

I guess the paper now can be officially said to have Fletcher derangement syndrome. I guess it could be a strain of the Bush derangement syndrome. Hmm, I didn't realize that such a disease was virulent. Learn something new every day.

Posted by elendil at 11:29 AM in Political Issues
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The Deal

Ok, I have had a chance to read through the "deal" struck between Governor Fletcher's legal team and the Attorney General's office. The details are outlined below along with my notes in italic:

  • The grand jury found probably cause to believe that a number of violation of the merit system law occurred.

    Note that this is not admission of guilt, but only that the AG had cause to indict people. This is ultimately why the prosecution of Fletcher didn't go forward. They had cause that laws may have been broken. The problem is of the people who may have been involved in breaking those laws, Fletcher was not one of them.

  • Governor acknowledges wrong doing by his administration with regard to personnel actions within the merit system.

    Ok, Fletcher admitted that from the beginning.

  • Governor states the actions were inappropriate and regrets their occurrence and accepts responsibility for them as head of the executive branch. This is not an admission of guilt.

    Again, these are the comments that the Governor said early on in this investigation. If this is all the AG wanted, we could have ended this a long long time ago.

  • The AG's investigation was a "necessary and proper exercise of his constitutional duty" . The investigation and prosecution have benefited the Commonwealth and ensured that abuses of the state's merit system will be eliminated.

    This was an attempt by the AG's office to make this look like a "legitimate" prosecution. On top of that they are spinning it as a win for the state merit system. Of all things it probably is a win for the merit system in all of its ugliness. For now on, it will be nearly impossible for either side from breaking it without holy hell breaking loose.

  • AG recognizes that actions taken by the current administration were without malice.

    This one really hits to the core of my complaint with this whole prosecution and why I think it was nothing but a political hit job. Since it was done without malice, why was it a "major" criminal matter that needed a massive fishing expedition. Shouldn't we have had an "agreement" early on such as the one that was trying to be brokered by Governor Brown?

  • Parties agree to not appeal this ruling.
  • Both the Gov and AG want to provide adversely affected merit employees with a hearing free from any appearance of impropriety. Thus the Governor's members of the personnel board resigned and the AG can help pick the newer members.

    So at the end of the day, this issue is ending up where I said it should have ended all along. THE PERSONNEL BOARD. If it had gone there in the beginning we would never have had this entire circus.

  • No further prosecutions will be sought

In the end, Stumbo is going to take the heat on this decision. He is trying to spin it that it is a win for the state employees, but it looks like he dropped the bucket. Why? Because the media have spun this as a slam dunk case. The reality is that the case was very very weak to begin with and he settled to keep from being embarrassed in court. My favorite part of this is Stumbo's reasoning that Fletcher would "pardon himself" as the justification for going through with the prosecution.

I don't know what is going to happen to Fletcher. Stumbo and his willing accomplices in the drive by media have inflicted horrific wounds to Fletcher. This retarded case has gotten 10 times the coverage of any Democratic scandal in the state and the constant negative news have driven Fletcher's negatives very low. But at the end of the day, this scandal is over and Fletcher has plenty of time to right the ship.

Posted by elendil at 9:39 AM in Kentucky Politics
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