Wednesday, 19 December 2007

Double Standards Part Duex

I want to give a hat tip out to the State GOP for sending me the following quote from AG Jack Conway's appearance during the October 8th KET debate.
Ronnie Ellis: Do you agree with Gen. Stumbo that it?s a higher standard? Do you ensure the people of Kentucky here tonight that you will watch for any improprieties in the merit system regardless of party or governor?
 
Jack Conway: Yes, you have to follow the law. Greg had to investigate that. Greg was brought a credible complaint by the whistleblower. He had a duty to investigate that. And yes, we are all on notice. The whole state is on notice?

As Attorney General, I am going to follow the law. I am not going to just investigate felonies. I am going to follow and investigate misdemeanors if appropriate. Greg had to investigate that. Yes, there is a higher standard.
Well that comes from the horses mouth! I expect Jack Conway to keep his word from the campaign and open an investigation into the Miller merit violations. I imagine he is forming the team and will make the announcement in the coming days.

Yeah... right. Politics as usual for the Democrats has returned to Frankfort and I imagine the main stream media will turn a deaf ear to the whole thing.
Posted by brians at 3:56 PM in Kentucky Politics
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Maybe Mitch isn't All That Vulnerable

Stumbo has decided to forgo a challenge to Sen McConnell and run for his old seat in the state legislature.
Attorney General Greg Stumbo has chosen a possible return to the Kentucky House over a run for the U.S. Senate.

Stumbo said on Wednesday that he hopes to fill a sudden vacancy for his old House seat in the 95th District, which covers most of Floyd County in eastern Kentucky. The seat became open when first-term Representative James Brandon Spencer resigned effective immediately in a letter to Gov. Steve Beshear.
Amazing. The day before he decides to return to the state legislature the current occupant of the seat has resigned. Coincidence?  I wonder what strong arm tactic Stumbo used to get Spencer to vacate the seat?

Why would you vacate a seat right before the session? This is the second Democrat, Mongiardo was the first, who has screwed his constituency by not resigning in time to allowing a run-off to occur before the session.

Oh yeah, and I guess Sen McConnell really isn't that vulnerable after all. I guess the stories about Republicans experiencing a free fall in Kentucky were a wee bit exaggerated after all.
Posted by brians at 3:42 PM in Kentucky Politics
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Double Standards

This is amazing. Here we are not even a month into the Beshear administration and already there is a problem with merit law violations. At the heart of the controversy is Finance and Administration Cabinet Secretary Johnathon Miller. During his tenure as Treasurer,  Miller apparently broke a number of merit laws.
  1. He hired Michael Bates using improper "pre-selection"
  2. He authorized illegal salary increases for Rebbecca Parker. In 2004 she was given two salary increase that totaled up to a 566.92 a month increase. There appears to be no written justification for the salary increase. In addition she has gone from a salary of 21,000 out of college to almost 79,000 a year in seven short years. She also traveled with him last May on a trip to Las Vegas. But supposedly she has received no "special treatment".
Both of these cases are clearly illegal under the current merit laws. So what does Beshear do? He refers the case to the Personnel board. Wait a cotton picken second. Laws were violated! Shouldn't Beshear call on the newly elected AG Jack Conway to investigate? Just because these are misdemeanor crimes does not mean they should not be punished. Isn't that what we learned when Fletcher had similar problems. Fletcher said they should be handled by the personnel board, but the Democrats and the media told us differently.

Where is the media now? Shouldn't they be up and arms about this like they were during the Fletcher administration? We had endless stories about the "corrupt" Fletcher administration, but I haven't seen any main stream media coverage of this  incident. Is this just another example of journalistic double standards?

Steve Beshear has called for "tougher merit laws". Yet when a clear violation of the current laws occurs he does nothing to enforce them. Shouldn't Beshear enforce the laws already on the book before changing them?

The Democrats started this when they went after Fletcher for similar types of indiscretions. While this issue, like Fletcher's, should be handled by the personnel board the precedent has been set. And I want the same standard applied to both Republicans and Democrats. We need an investigation and a grand jury to indict.
Posted by brians at 3:31 PM in Kentucky Politics
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