Big political news, which has been lost in the recent myriad of national political dramas, is ongoing in the state of Kentucky. Today, another bevy of indictments against high-ranking state GOP officials and members of Gov. Ernie Fletcher's (R) administration.
Today's indictments include the state GOP chairman, Darrell Brock Jr., and two other officials (including Fletcher's personnel adviser). This news comes on the heels of
three other earlier indictments (including Fletcher's deputy chief of staff), which was diaried last week
here. The total number of indictments stands at eight now. More below the fold...
The deal is this. Fletcher's administration, which took office in January 2004, is suspected of violating the state's "
merit system" laws with its personnel practices. Specifically, they have been accused of using politics as the basis for personnel actions relating to regular "rank-and-file", civil service state employees -- i.e., hiring or firing government employees based on political reasons and not qualifications. The state GOP's
lame response has been to cry "political witch-hunt"! Unfortunately for them, this scandal goes
all the way to the top -- with evidence to prove it.
Louisville Courier-Journal: Court files allege job 'hit lists' (06/25/2005)...
The state Transportation Cabinet kept a "hit list" of "politically motivated merit job actions," according to affidavits for search warrants filed in court yesterday.
The affidavits include a Feb. 16 e-mail message between two administration officials stating: "Sadie asked for a list today."
It was not immediately clear which list was being sought. But as part of its investigation into allegations of political favoritism in civil-service hiring, the attorney general's office filed with the affidavits two alleged hit lists.
One of the purported hit lists remained under seal yesterday.
Gov. Ernie Fletcher confirmed yesterday that he had opened a personal e-mail account under the name "Sadie" in his office. Sadie is the name of his deceased golden retriever. Fletcher said he was unaware of a "hit list," and e-mail messages filed in support of the affidavits include denials by two administration officials that such a list existed.
So, big deal...a politician giving jobs to his friends, right? Wrong. Such practices are not only strictly against state law in Kentucky (it's discrimination plain and simple, after all) but also smack of the exact type of supposed corruption and cronyism Fletcher ran against in his 2003 campaign -- claiming that the 40 years of Democratic dominance of the Governorship and state politics had fostered a corrupted "good ol' boy" system. That anti-insider message, along with then-Gov. Paul Patton's (D) personal problems, swept the Republican Fletcher into office over our good friend Ben Chandler.
This is yet another stunning example of GOP political opportunism and ethical hypocrisy. Delay, Rove, Fletcher...drip, drip, drip. A friend of mine once told me, absolute power corrupts absolutely. If we can't use the GOP's corruption and absolute abuse of power against them with great success in the mid-terms and 2008 -- then just stick a fork in us, we're finished.