Thursday, 16 August 2007
Ethics Commission Clears Fletcher
« The 1930's Was the Warmest Decade in the Last 100 Years | Main | The Executive Ethics Commission Must Die »FRANKFORT, Ky. -- The Executive Branch Ethics Commission has decided that ethics charges against Gov. Ernie Fletcher are not warranted based on a review of his administration's hiring practices.This of course sent the Democrats into a fit of hysterics.
Fletcher's re-election campaign released a copy yesterday of a June 27 letter from the commission's executive director, Jill LeMaster, telling the governor of the commission's decision.
"We want to congratulate Ernie Fletcher on finally being able to appoint enough members to the ethics commission to end its investigation," said Vicki Glass, director of communications for the Beshear campaign. "Fortunately for Kentucky, he was not able to appoint the members of the grand jury that indicted him."
Said Stumbo: "We never had any confidence in the ethics commission because most members were hand-picked by the governor. The public deserves better from a watchdog agency and from a governor who is still trying to deceive the public."
Give me a break. They point to the fact that the ethics commission was appointed by Fletcher as the reason he "got off". Because we all know that the grand jury was really fair! Yeah, with a Democratic activist judge who is now working for Beshear and an activist Democratic AG who was only trying to destroy his political opponents, I can see how the court system was completely impartial. And by the way that AG is also trying to help Beshear get elected. Fletcher definitely got a real fair shake in court.
On the other hand we have the Ethics Commission (who is not working for Fletcher's reelection) has shown real impartiality in this investigation. Let's review.
The ethics commission began its examination of the matter later in 2005 and so far has brought charges of ethics violations against five former members of the Fletcher administration: Transportation Administrative Services Commissioner Dan Druen; Deputy Personnel Secretary Robert Wilson; Deputy Transportation Secretary Jim Adams; Darrell Brock, commissioner of the Governor's Office of Local Development; and Basil Turbyfill, director of the Governor's Office of Personnel and Efficiency.
Why would "ethics charges" be brought against these people in the administration if the commission was in the pocket of Fletcher? Wouldn't everyone be cleared if that was truly the case? The reality of the situation is that a couple of people in the Governor's administration screwed up in their hiring practices and the Ethics commission cited them for it. This is how it is supposed to work. This case was always a civil matter and not a criminal one. Don't think so? Beshear didn't agree with you.
He(Beshear) said that in 1983, while attorney general, Beshear deferred a criminal investigation of a personnel matter to the Personnel Board.
Ryall cited an article in the Lexington Herald-Leader in which Beshear was quoted as saying he received a letter from the Personnel Board alleging personnel violations within the staff of then-Secretary of State Frances Jones Mills.
Beshear is quoted in the article saying, "But we wrote back to the board that such an investigation belonged to the board's jurisdiction."
This is good news for Fletcher and bad news for those with Fletcher Derangement Syndrome. This is the most definitive proof yet that Fletcher was not personally involved in the hiring scandal. In addition, it provides additional evidence that the AG's "investigation of the governor" was nothing more than an overzealous partisan attempt to take down a sitting governor.
