Tuesday, 20 March 2007

The Magical Casino Ride

Left wing candidate, Jonathan Miller, is promising everyone a vast expansion of the nanny state if elected. Today we were treated to more of his promises.

If elected, State Treasurer Jonathan Miller said he would provide full-day kindergarten classes for all Kentucky children, raise teacher pay to the average of neighboring states, forgive student loans for certain math, science and technology teachers and create school-based health centers in every county. Miller said revenue from allowing casino gambling would pay for most of the plans.

First it was socialized health care. Now we will be treated to universal child care. Teacher pay increases, forgiveness of student loans, and school based health care centers in every county! All of which will be paid by casinos! Wow those must be magical casinos. They will need to be to generate the billions of dollars necessary to pay for such an expansion of government intrusion into our lives.

This was the same bill of goods that was sold to us years ago by Wally Wilkinson. Back then the lottery would fund our education system. People bought into it, and the reality didn't even come close to approaching the hype. Now we get a new silver bullet in legalized gambling. While I think legalizing gambling would help to revitalize downtown Louisville without tax payer involvement, I don't think it should be something that the state relies on to pay for massive new spending schemes.

At this point, it is safe to say that Miller has solidified himself as the ultra-liberal in this race. I imagine he will do fairly well in the urban areas, but will that be enough to carry him in the rest of the state? Only time will tell.

Posted by elendil at 11:01 PM in Kentucky Politics
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Kentucky Republican Civil War

My friend over at kyconservativeblogs.com has done a masterful job of bringing together conservative bloggers across Kentucky. Yesterday, he decided to shut down his web site until after the May primary because of the heated vitriol spewing from some of the partisans on each side of the Republican primary.

Members, I have made the decision to shut down the KYConservativeBlogs.com until after the May Primary. With my absence in Washington D.C, I didn't have the opportunity to keep up with reading everyone's posts, but once I did I was surprised by the harshness the Fletcher and Northup factions were attacking each other directly, and that is not why I helped organize this network.

When Northup joined the race over a month ago, I knew these types of attacks would occur. How could it not? On one side you have supporters of the Governor who believe they have been wronged by the party. And now they are seeing members of their own party ripping into their candidate and have become very defensive. On the other side you have those who are saying that Fletcher is a scoundrel and as such is unelectable.

How do you close this rhetorical gap after the primary? If Fletcher wins, will all of the people who have been saying Fletcher can't win change their tune and say "We were just kidding, of course Fletcher can win"? If Northup wins, do you think those who have been smeared by her aggressive tactics will gladly fall in line to support her?

How can this end well? I am a Fletcher supporter who likes Northup. I just think her run for the governorship is a bit misguided at this time. But with that said, I know I am having a hard time getting excited about her campaign as she continually trashes Fletcher. Especially knowing that if Fletcher wins, Northup's words will be echoed by whoever the Democratic nominee. Imagine how those more partisan than I am will feel?

For a party that is outnumbered almost two to one in registration in this state, we can't afford to be divided going into the general election. But how can we be unified? Which means we are faced with the real and discouraging possibility that a second rate Democrat will sit in the governors mansion next year.

I hope I am proven wrong. Maybe we can be like the Democrats and circle the wagons once the primary battle is over. But for some reason, I don't think it will be as easy for us Republicans who have never been in this situation before. We have already passed the brink. It is too late to reverse this split. Hopefully, the scars from this war will heal up and not come back to haunt us this November.

Posted by elendil at 10:23 PM in Kentucky Politics
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