Larry Dale Keeling is always entertaining. Here's his most recent column on the "boy governor.

Be careful what you say, Governor

Keep feet out of your mouth during grand jury visit

By Larry DaLe Keeling

HERALD-LEADER COLUMNIST


FRANKFORT - Even with the special grand jury (and me) enjoying some time off, Gov. Ernie Fletcher suffered through another bad patch last week, culminating with the invitation delivered to his general counsel, Jim Deckard, Friday afternoon.

It asks the governor to be the guest of honor at an exclusive party scheduled for Aug. 30, presumably to be held on the second floor of the Franklin County Courthouse where several similarly intimate affairs have transpired in recent weeks.

At that time, he will have to cross the bridge he's been avoiding of late, the one where he decides whether he wants to engage in pleasant conversation with his hosts and hostesses or avail himself of the privileges afforded him by the Fifth Amendment of the U.S. Constitution.

My bet? He skedaddles out of that grand jury room faster than he scampered off the Fancy Farm Picnic stage when it came time for Attorney General Greg Stumbo to say a few words.

Should my guess prove accurate, the more likely consequence of a hasty retreat from the party, based on what has become the norm for reluctant witnesses, is that he then will suffer the embarrassment of being marched off (in the full glare of TV lights and accompanied by the sound of clicking camera shutters) to another intimate encounter in the principal's office.

Oh, excuse me, I meant to say the judge's chambers.

But the flashing image of our Boy Governor being sent to the principal's office interfered with the transmission of the proper term from brain to typing fingers.

Anyway, better to clam up and be a bit embarrassed than to risk misspeaking oneself right into a perjury charge.

As disconcerting as it must have been for the governor, the subpoena to appear hardly qualified as the worst hit he has taken in recent days.

On the eve of the Fancy Farm Picnic came disclosure of evidence that Boy Governor and top members of his Kiddie Korps -- including the recently installed Boy Justice of the state Supreme Court, John Roach -- were warned not once but twice about the dangers of messing around with merit system jobs. Reams of additional documents released last week indicate that there were other warnings as well.

For instance, Mark Pitsch of The Courier-Journal reported this February e-mail exchange between Otis Reed, then the Transportation Cabinet personnel director, and Dick Murgatroyd, then the deputy secretary of the cabinet and now BG's deputy chief of staff:

Reed: "Maybe somebody will get control of the Disciples before it is too late. I don't know if they don't know the law or if they just don't care and that is the scary part."

Murgatroyd: "They think they are above it."

(I was particularly struck by the reference to "Disciples," who are apparently the political hatchet men of this administration, because it made me wonder when BG and his KK will hold their last supper.)

More damning to Boy Governor was an e-mail Doug Doerting sent to Murgatroyd last November, six months before Doerting went to Stumbo with a ton of documents that started this investigation.

BG recently has test-driven his umpteenth excuse for this mess in Frankfort by trying to blame Doerting for not alerting his superiors to possible violations of the law governing merit system jobs.

Last week, BG said in an interview with WHAS radio, "There was a complaint here that was held for a long time when (Doerting) gave us absolutely no warning that he thought anything wrong was going on."

But as Tom Loftus reported in the Courier-Journal, Doerting said in that November e-mail, "I am extremely uncomfortable with the responsibility of reviewing and approving registers involving appointments and promotions which may be inconsistent with the spirit and intent of the merit law."

Once again, Boy Governor was caught with both feet firmly planted in his mouth, a situation he better avoid when he attends that Aug. 30 party.

posted by Stithmeister @ 8:47 AM
 
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