In his first-ever radio address, KY governor Ernie Fletcher compared the commonwealth's merit-based hiring law for state government jobs to a 1960s sitcom, and basically said that his administration has violated the law so many times due to ignorance and incompetence, not a lack of ethics.
No, seriously - he did:
In his radio address, Fletcher said the merit law dates back to the time of the old Andy Griffith Show of the early 1960s. Fletcher said the law has not been significantly changed, even though the General Assembly overhauled the law about a decade ago.
Without changes, Fletcher said, "current problems with the Merit System will be constantly in reruns" like the television show.
...
"Because many in my administration lacked the knowledge and expertise to manage in our out-of-date Merit System, I acknowledged that some mistakes were made," Fletcher said in the recording obtained by The Associated Press on Tuesday.
Ernie, it's just a law - it's not like you have to learn Aramaic or something.
Interestingly enough, Fletcher campaigned on a promise of "cleaning up" our commonwealth's government, and repeatedly said that the merit-system law works - and he had no desire to change it.
In fact, In an October 29, 2003 letter to state employees Fletcher wrote: "The current merit system has been very effective at keeping politics out of state government. I believe that it would be a mistake to do anything that could potentially undermine the current system."
So why does the dude want to ditch the law now?
Oh, I forgot - 9/11 changed everything. Remember, if you're in favor of merit-based hiring in state government, then you don't want to win the War on Terror.
And by the way - hasn't it always been the goal of Republicans to change American life into something resembling "The Andy Griffith Show" or "Leave It to Beaver" or something?
And if Fletcher's ethics violations end up "constantly in reruns," who gets the residuals? Will the citizens of the commonwealth have to sue to negotiate a new deal to get paid, like the cast of "Gilligan's Island" did?