Friday, 8 February 2008
Beshear Seems Lost
I have been watching the first months of the Beshear administration and I am struck with how poor Beshear's political instincts really are. Let's just take the last week as an example.
First we have the election in the 30th district. If he doesn't do anything and they lose the seat it wouldn't matter. If they won it then bonus. Instead of letting it be what it is, he decided to throw his hat into the ring and fight for the seat. In doing so a couple of things happened. First, He pissed off his own base by strong arming the selection process for a candidate. Secondly, by engaging the fight, he turned it into a referendum on casinos. Now he lost and his mandate for casinos is all but gone. Why? He didn't have too needlessly throw it away.
Let's look at the hiring scandal surrounding Air National Guard member Eric Landis. What the Beshear administration did was probably illegal. They should have said oops we made a clerical mistake in firing him. Sorry we will find him a job because we believe in supporting our military. The service in the military shouldn't be punished in the work place. Sure the right would have gotten a chance to blast him. So what? The issue is off the paper in two days max. Instead Beshear and company have decided to fight and say Landis was fired for cause. I wouldn't be surprised if Landis decided to take legal action against the administration.
Now the story will probably drag on for days. Months if it goes to court. Meanwhile, Beshear looks like an ass for screwing over a military guy. Bashing the military might be popular position in Berkley, but it won't fly in Kentucky. Why do it? For one state government job?
Beshear has the uncanny ability to fight battles that don't need to be fought. Rather than setting the agenda and working to get his legislation passed, he sets off on fruitless ventures. It seems as if he wants to micromanage every aspect in his administration. Not only is he wasting time but he is actually losing these frivolous battles. He needs to surround himself with better advisers and start delegating. Otherwise the next four years are going to be horrendous.
