Jody Richards Shoots Own Foot Again

In the aftermath of the General Assembly session, Speaker Jody Richards does his gubernatorial campaign no favors:

Richards noted that House Democrats and Republicans have teamed up in similar fashion before and scoffed at the new-found bipartisanship in the upper chamber.

"In the Senate, I don't know what it is," he said. "I think the Senate Democrats are just afraid of Sen. Williams."

Who is he talking about, Sen. Ernesto Scorsone of Lexington, or perhaps Sen. Gerald Neal of Louisville? As twisted up as some Republicans are about the divisive primary they face, they really need to consider how close the Dems are to nominating Steve Henry.

One Teeny Tiny Little Question For Lawmakers

In 2000, Frankfort politicians somehow sold us on the idea that if we just gave them annual sessions we wouldn't have to deal with bringing everyone back in for so many special sessions.

When Governor Fletcher calls them back later this year, it will the fourth special session in seven years.

So why are we paying you guys to meet in annual sessions?

Dems, GOP Right To Fear KY Club For Growth

Looks like at least one liberal blogger is figuring out what's up with the Kentucky Club for Growth.

Big-government Republicans have just as much reason to be afraid. The Club pledges allegiance to the principles of fiscal conservatism, not any political party. It is liberating to take on members of both parties who stray from correct fiscal principles. While it is also distressing that Kentucky's political environment is such a target-rich field now, the leadership of the nascent Club for Growth in the Bluegrass State is indeed gaining the influence to hold some feet to the fire.

I'm glad to see Diane Brumback is paying attention.

Counting The Ways Dems Might Raise Taxes

They told us during the campaign they were not going to raise our taxes, so why are we even having this conversation?

Republicans should smell opportunity here. If we can get them to start acting like conservatives again, they could become agents of change again.

One Last Question From General Assembly Session

As the regular General Assembly session ends in partisan bickering and a slew of sidelined spending projects, I have just one question:

If, as Sen. Dan Kelly suggests, failure to pass Rep. Harry Moberly's secrecy bill could cost the state "several hundred million dollars" in judgements, do we really have any business restoring all the vetoed projects from last year's budget, thereby spending money that rightly belongs to people the legislature has previously wronged?

Liberals On Warpath: I Think This Bit Of Anti-American Propaganda Will Backfire On Them

The End Is Near

The House just attached the Boni Bill to SB 59, one of the Senate re-organization bills. This should just about wrap it up.

8:47 Update: the Senate just passed HB 362, the Boni Bill.

10:15 Update: the Senate has adjourned for the year -- or at least until the special session starts.

Next Up: Special Session

The legislature is basically just running out the clock, leaving a lot of spending undone. Governor Fletcher will call them back into session and they will do their projects. The thing is they won't do anything about public pensions. The House Dems will hold their breath, turn purple, and say no till they bankrupt the state or are forced to act.

And that underscores a very important reason to support four more years of Governor Fletcher. A new governor will spend four years trying to play nice in order to get re-elected. At the beginning of a second term, Governor Fletcher would be finished running for governor. The heady days of shutting down pension reform will be long gone by this fall. Next January, Governor Fletcher can force them to act or stop all spending in their districts.

We probably can't trust any new governor to make the tough calls the next four years; we know we can't trust any of the crop of Dem candidates.

A second term with Governor Fletcher could possibly be a great benefit to the state. We need someone to knock heads up there and he would be free to do so in ways a first term governor wouldn't be. Governor Fletcher has been a fiscal conservative before. In 2008, he could be one again. No one else in the race -- with the possible exception of Billy Harper -- could plausibly make the same claim.

Last Day Of The Session; Good Gridlock

Don't be surprised if the Senate attaches the Kentucky Horse Park and Wolf Creek Dam projects to HB 362 The Boni Bill in order to get them passed.

I expect David Williams to keep his word and not let HB 1 and all its vetoed projects get through because the House refused to talk about pension reform.

This session really went south from the big government perspective when Harry Moberly's coup petered out. Gridlock is good. This session could have been much worse.

Think About What You Are Saying

Senate Majority Floor Leader Dan Kelly today tried and failed to pass an amendment promoting secrecy in the legislative process saying -- since his amendment failed -- "we could find ourselves with several hundred million dollars of claims that could be charged against the treasury."

Do we really want to get into how moving the legislative process behind closed doors might erase potentially hundreds of millions of dollars in claims against the treasury?

I'd suggest to legislators that a better way to handle such huge liabilities would be to refrain from spending the excess taxation currently held in the treasury(surplus). We've already been overtaxed once. Screwing plaintiffs or overtaxing yet again can't be the answer. It just can't be. Quit jerking us around and get back to work.

Another Out-Of-State Pundit Misses The Mark

You have to read this to the very end to get to the punch line.

Senate Thwarted One More Time

It's pretty sick when the best news we get is bad legislation being killed, but the Senate A&R committee deserves kudos for turning away another attempt to get Harry Moberly's secrecy bill through.

Nice job!

It was an amendment to House Bill 400 that Senator Dan Kelly tried to attach to the original bill. It won't be available till sometime late tonight, but I will show it when I can. Either way, another attempt fails. Let's keep watching them.

Note to Leadership: the rest of the free world has already figured out that we want open, honest government. What ... is ... your ... problem?!?!

Victory, Again!

I was working on another hit piece on the Senate for slipping Harry Moberly's secrecy bill into HB 228, but the Senate just pulled the offensive substitute from the bill.

Good move, Senate.

We will be watching carefully as this foolishness is likely to return next year.

Another Lib Talking Point Goes Down Hard

Hey, I thought we were all going to get sick and die if we didn't harvest lots more fetal stem cells.

Osiris Therapeutics Inc.'s easy-to- administer stem cell treatment helped patients recover after a heart attack and eased their symptoms in a study.

The cells were given intravenously to patients who had a heart attack within the past 10 days, researchers said. The hearts of those who got the cells pumped 25 percent more efficiently both three months and six months after treatment, according to research presented today at a science meeting.

The study, using adult cells gathered from bone marrow, is the first to transfer stem cells from donors to heart patients. Since an IV line delivers the cells, rather than a complex heart procedure, ``they could be given at a community hospital'' rather than an academic center, said Marc Penn, director of the Bakken Heart Brain Institute at the Cleveland Clinic.

Maybe not. If you are keeping score at home, that's one more real-world success for adult stem cells versus zero for fetal stem cells.

Any more words of wisdom on global warming or how great socialized medicine will be?

Hillary Clinton's Free Commercial On GMA

Hillary Clinton is on Good Morning America doing what feels an awful lot like an infomercial. The topic of the day is, of course, socialized medicine.

"I think we will move toward requiring employers to participate," Clinton said.

What this means is Hillary is going for RomneyCare as opposed to Medicare For Everyone. This approach ties individual health premium subsidies to income. The lower your income, the higher your subsidy. What we need to be considering is the impact this will have on our economy as a disincentive to productivity. What are you going to do if your climbing income is about to lower your subsidy by more than your increased income?

Kentucky Senate Republicans Adrift

Senate President David Williams has done well to address the looming pension crisis in Frankfort. But after watching the national GOP melt down into a rudderless tub of goo, one might think he would have the sense to quickly dispatch whoever tried to revive Harry Moberly's fascistic HB 184 by stuffing it into HB 228.

Wake up, President Williams, before you wreck your boat. The MSM will give Moberly a pass on his attempt to hijack the legislative process, but you will be drawn and quartered.

And you won't have any conservatives coming to your rescue just because you have an (R) next to your name.

Remove the committee substitute on HB 228. NOW!

The Morality Of Bad Public Policy

Steve Beshear says if we elect him governor, he will solve our fiscal problems with loads of casino gambling cash.

"At the end of the day, it was not a moral problem for me," Beshear, who grew up singing at church with his siblings, said of his advocacy for expanded gambling. "I know it is for some people."

The burden of proof should be on Singing Steve to demonstrate that the public costs of casino gambling are less than the windfall he keeps talking about. Getting the focus of this issue off morality -- which is a valid concern, but not a persuasive one -- and onto simple math -- which is valid and persuasive -- will lead us to the right decision.

Big Mistake: Stupid Anti-School Choice Law

At a time when Kentucky demonstrably needs to give parents and students more freedoms and less clumsy bureaucracy in public education, the General Assembly and Governor Fletcher have agreed to foist a new law upon us that, while having little real impact on the former, provides a boon to the latter.

HB 32 will succeed only in filling the courts with teenage high school dropouts seeking hardship exemptions from this do-over for the old no pass, no drive law.

Another Dumbass Move By The General Assembly

The General Assembly goes back to work Monday, so it is going to be a pretty good idea to hold on to your wallet.

A fine example of why we should stay on guard is what the Senate did to a decent House Bill 228 which, in its original form, just cut back a little on the ridiculous idea of prohibiting "price gouging."

Price gouging is, however, an argument for a different time.

Someone in the Senate came up with the bright idea to slip part of Rep. Harry Moberly's fascist HB 184 that we killed off last month into HB 228.

Whose stupid idea was this? Was it Damon Thayer? Does anyone know? When Harry got busted on this last month, he wound up taking a sick day when he couldn't take the heat.

It's time for a sneaky Senator to catch an early spring cold and to withdraw the Substitute from HB 228.

Blog Blocking Blah Blah Blah...

Most of the people who think Ernie Fletcher will pay a political price for his Administration blocking on-the-clock access to political blogs are merely blinded by partisan hatred.

And yes, reading employee emails falls under the same category.

The Northup campaign will NOT find any gain in trying to capitalize on this one.