Who's Afraid of Virginia Woodward?

The Kentucky Senate's 37th district constitutional conundrum appears to have the Lexington Herald Leader and Louisville Courier Journal all twisted up in their hopes to install more liberal Democrats in Frankfort.

Both papers today jump on a Franklin Circuit Court ruling that keeps open the question of who will serve the 37th Senate district -- Dana Seum Stephenson or Virginia Woodward.

The Senate voted to seat Stephenson because she won the election. Now Judge Graham is calling that decision "arbitrary." This is the key issue. Whether the decision of the Senate was arbitrary or whether the Court's calling it that is a violation of separation of powers should get the case to the Kentucky Supreme Court. Interestingly, Woodward's due process claims could possibly shift the case to federal courts should she lose before the Kentucky Supreme Court.

I doubt that Kentucky's Supreme Court is going to decide against the Senate on this issue. To do so would open up the legislature to excessive judicial control. Judges would only have to claim that a decision they didn't like was "arbitrary." While that would certainly be a liberal dream come true, the Supreme Court should be slow to go there. We expect more angry editorials about mean old David Williams and his iron fist. Funny.

"Smoking Gun" Stumbo To Give Up AG?

A top KDP official said that AG Greg Stumbo looks like a definite go for the Democratic Party's 2007 gubernatorial primary. No word on whether Doug Doerting will be his running mate, but we wouldn't be surprised to hear that he has been promised a good job.

KDP Strategy 2006

Kentucky Democrats will soon be chanting one number: 96,000. That is the number of senior citizens in Kentucky they want to believe will become poverty stricken in the event of Social Security reform. Expect that number to get lots of media coverage.

Also lots of talk about reframing issues. A Berkeley professor has put out a video that talks about how to use language to change perception without actually changing positions. This will, activists hope, allow the party's candidates to support tax increases in the name of "investment," shutting down the active defense against terrorism -- never mentioning the term "national security" by turning the discussion to "economic security" -- and pushing nationalized health care as "health security."

In other words, the Democrats are going hard to the left. Their next step will be to cast Jesus as a Marxist by co-opting the Beattitudes. Good news.

The Path of Most Resistance

President Bush is coming back to Kentucky for a Thursday lunchtime visit in Hopkinsville to bring attention to the need to reform Social Security.

Consistently and persistently "misunderestimated" by political opponents, Bush is, according to the liberal media, wasting his time trying to get Democrats to address entitlement reform. They are wrong on two fronts. If reform passes and the program's shortfall is addressed successfully, Democrats will have to hope no one notices. And they will be beyond help if personal accounts become the law of the land. While some conservatives complain that the President himself is selling PSA's short by making them too small for maximum effectiveness, anything that provides ownership and better returns on payroll taxes will be wildly popular. What may be even better is if reform opponents prevail and meaningful reform can't be enacted this year. Republicans love running against ideologically intransigent obstructionist Democrats. Democrats were supposed to be idealistic and optimistic. How fortunate for Republicans that Harry Reid's Dems get so juiced by grinding reform to a halt. It is almost as fortuitous as the circumstance of last year that had Democrat candidates running against the War on Terror. (For fun you can look up Ralph Nader's call to impeach Bush for "sexing up" the case for attacking Iraq. Last year? No, today!)

Politicians are famous for taking the easy way out. President Bush is gaining a reputation as one who makes decisions and goes to work to enact his ideas. History may well judge this hard-headed man favorably. If it does, his opponents will take in on the chin.

More fun reading can be found here in another "what liberals have to do to win" essay.

Cat Fight: 2006 Democrat Primary in 76th

The Kentucky Democratic Party is preparing to unveil a primary opponent for Rep. Ruth Ann Palumbo. She squeaked past John Hampton by 221 votes in her 2004 re-election bid.

Last Year, Rep. Palumbo was named one of Kentucky's Dean's Dozen candidates and was endorsed by DNC Chairman Howard Dean's Dean for America political organization.

"In today's highly competitive environment, we have to cut loose some of our weak links," an insider said.

Stumbo Mumbo Jumbo Meets Changing Winds

A shift in the focus of the so-called JOBTROT affair (with apologies to all the girls Greg has, uh, loved before) happened today.

"Greg Stumbo has no plans to run for governor," Greg Stumbo, egomaniac, said.

It's about time for challengers for the sadly diminished office of Attorney General to start coming forward, actually.

MarketWatch: Fletcher Up, Clinton Down

Kudos to Governor Ernie Fletcher for sticking it to the obstructionist hacks accusing him of merit system violations. I loved this:

“After 30 years of Republicans not being in here, we have been flooded with recommendations of folks feeling like in the past they had absolutely no opportunity, and now they did have an opportunity of being part of state government and moving this state forward,” Fletcher said.

And this:

Kentucky has had a Democratic patronage system for two decades, Fletcher said, and his Republican administration is being investigated for what he said were “no irregularities.” In reviewing the 495 names, “no merit system irregularities were discovered,” Fletcher said.

Meanwhile, Arianna Huffington jumps on Hillary Clinton:

Judy Woodruff asked a very specific question: “Record numbers of Americans continue to die in Iraq. No end to the violence in sight that most people can see. When should the United States begin significant troop withdrawals?”
Hillary reacted like a vampire being shown a cross or an ABC executive seeing the ratings for their Trump TV movie… then offered up the following head scratcher:
You know, I am not one who feels comfortable setting exit strategies. We don't know what we're exiting from. We don't know what the situation is moving toward…. How do we know where we're headed, when we don't know where we are?
Wow. Very existential. Very Zen koan. If a foreign policy disintegrates in the desert and no one hears it fail, what does this mean for our country and for our safety?

Moonbat Arianna can't be expected to question Judy Woodruff's "record numbers of Americans" goof. What record is that Judy?

And for those of you worried about the poll said to show Hillary on her way to the White House in 2008, don't go buy your "Hillary Lied and Vince Foster Died" t-shirts yet. The coverage of the poll seems unusually short on details. With the blogosphere jumping on recent bogus polls who publish their methodology, Gallup/USA Today/CNN isn't going to invite any unwanted scrutiny into their little news creation device.

Back to Basics: Saving Social Security Reform

Future Social Security recipients have been the losers in the political wrangling over Social Security reform. Democrat do-nothingness has, unfortunately, been met with confusing language from the Bush Administration. Now we are facing the false choice of raising taxes or cutting benefits (or both, for heaven's sake.) Peter Ferrara sums up where we went wrong trying to bring the Democrats to the table and how we can effectively promote the reform agenda with personal accounts.

Fletcher Embroiled In Hair Care Scandal

Calling Fletcher Administration officials "a well-groomed bunch, very suspiciously well-groomed," Attorney General Greg Stumbo launched an investigation into what newspaper columnists are calling MOPTROT.

At the heart of the investigation is a disturbing number of grooming-tip emails confiscated by the AG's office. Stumbo found his most incriminating evidence here in an advertisement for Duurstede Shampoo-EF.

"The evidence (of a Republican hair conspiracy) is pretty substantial at this point," Stumbo added "and it is mounting."

No Administration officials could explain why the governor's initials were part of the name of the shampoo or why their hair looks so nice.

D.C. Democrats Are The New Soviets

Beltway Democrats are up to the same old tricks, surprising the heck out of useful idiots Lindsey Graham and John McCain et al., but no one else. Tonight Dems used procedural moves to prevent a straight vote on John Bolton's UN nomination.

They are putting up a smoke screen about wanting more information from the state Department. I would bet they haven't even read the 500 pages they already have. We need someone like Bolton to bonk heads in the UN. Unfortunately, we need to start in the Spineless Senate.

And yes, I'm talking about the Republicans. The Democrats are just doing what they do. They can be trusted to obstruct, name call, and waste time. The only way to break the partisan logjam is to strengthen the majority in Congress. We have serious fiscal and national defense issues to address and the opposition has no ideas whatsoever.

Can you really believe we are losing to this?

Pathetic.

Google Search Fun

Someone in a government office in Arizona did a Google search for "alligators in Kentucky" and, you guessed it, the first option was Kentucky Progress.

Tax Reform Step One: The 16th Amendment Must Go

Before we take on the topic of tax reform, please read this for an interesting history of how we created this mess.

Lexington PVA Office Investigation

Fayette County's Property Valuation Administrator's office has been plagued by serious mismanagement issues that have been covered up by local media.

Insiders are talking. As we confirm details, we will report them here.

Kentucky Progress Radio

I'll be on the radio this afternoon (WEKY 1340 AM) 5:15 pm to 6:15 pm. Call in number is (877) 620-1340

2006 Election Preview

Kentucky Democratic Party insiders are preparing a full-scale attack on the Republican Senate Majority in next year's elections. Just what we need, more Deaniacs in Frankfort.

Meanwhile, the highest concentration of Republican voters in a Senate district currently held by a Democrat reside in the 34th (Madison, Lincoln, Rockcastle). That's the district of Senate Minority Leader Sen. Ed Worley.

Mad Science A Wedge Issue?

Congressman Ben Chandler firmly established his Beltway liberal credentials last year when he voted to raise taxes, set up abortion clinics on overseas military bases, and to throw extra money at the National Endowment for the Arts. He surely sealed the deal yesterday when he voted to spend taxpayer dollars to create a market for human embryos.

Democrats think they have found a wedge issue for the 2006 elections in embryonic stem cell research. Proponents of this research claim that destroying live human embryos can yield material to cure a long laundry list of diseases and conditions. There is, of course, no evidence to suggest that this works.

Fifty House Republicans went along with the scheme. Fortunately, a more rational version of a research bill passed as well.

President Bush will veto the bad bill if necessary.

UPDATE: It would be funny if it weren't so cynical and stupid. Goofy Senators Reid and Kennedy are both calling for an "up-or-down vote" on federal embryonic destruction. The AP writer on the story unwittingly ads more of the same with this helpful sentence: "He called for an "up-or-down vote," meaning one with no amendments attached." Oh. Is that what it means when Democrats say it? Last week it was just something Republicans said when they wanted their fascist judges pushed through with no regard for "minority rights."

GOP Meltdown In US Senate; Moderate Lovefest on Judicial Nominees

Go ahead and kick me while I'm down. With the gutless wonders we have in our fake majority in the US Senate, I'm quite used to it.

The only thing worse than hearing about the cave in on judicial nominees is the having to endure the left-wing crowing that is sure to come.

Do Nothing Chandler Stays His Course

Rep. Ben Chandler continues to trade in his middle-of-the-road appeal for Beltway Liberal brownie points by joining in with what passes for Democrat Do-Something-ism these days: building a shrine to FDR.

Rep. Chandler signed on with Barney Frank, Nancy Pelosi, Jim McDermott, Jim Moran, and other such left-wing luminaries in co-sponsoring HR 197 Honoring Franklin Delano Roosevelt or The I'm a Democrat and, Doggone It, I Like Myself Act.

This resolution celebrates FDR's role in lengthening the Depression, building the welfare state, creating the Social Security ponzi scheme, and promoting Communists to the highest levels of the United States government.

All this is supposed to cover up the fact that Democrats don't want Social Security reform to diminish their power any faster than their misstatements, election thefts, and tax increases do.

Stanford Mayor's Faked $500,000 Federal Grant Application

Developing...

Howard Dean: Why JOBTROT Doesn't Mean Much

Kentucky's Governor's office may even be overrun with incompetents, but who cares? Democrats are still likely to put up AG Greg "Who's Your Daddy?" Stumbo or Treasurer Jonathan "I've got $150 million, make that $30 million, hey where's my money?" Miller versus Fletcher in 2007. That says it all. If the Kentucky Democratic Party doesn't expect to beat EF, let's get back to focusing on improving the Commonwealth. While the media have been reading meaningless emails, the Administration has been doing just that.

And thanks to Howard Dean for saying yesterday that Socialists like Senate candidate Bernie Sanders are just regular Democrats. You can look it up. Raising taxes, expanding government's reach, and obstructing progress at every turn are tactics that don't inspire anyone. If "Our Scandals Get Less Coverage Than Your Scandals" becomes a viable campaign selling point, then I will be worried.