Archive for the 'Special Session' Category

My E-Mail to the KY GOP

Joe Sonka July 21st, 2007

(crossposted at BlueGrassRoots)

In response to the top three news items on the KY GOP’s website, I was forced to send them a friendly letter.

Item #1- They cite the 2 week old poll showing Beshear and Fletcher in a close race, which "shows" that Fletcher’s "leadership" in calling for the special session gave him a huge bump in the polls.

Item #2- They post an absolutely hilarious letter from Ned Flanders Stan Lee to his opponent Jack Conway, asking him to oppose Beshear gaming expansion, or as Ned Stan puts it, "his desire to see casinos in every county across the commonwealth". Basically, he cites studies showing that casinos lead to rape, robbery, drugs, aggravated assault, embezzlement, prostitution, divorce, motor vehicle theft, murder, suicide and abortions. Wow! But he buries the lead: “In 2002, the Indiana Gaming Commission fined the Belterra Casino $2.2 million for providing prostitutes to its customers. As part of the investigation into the prostitution scandal, it was reported that casino owners would send female ‘player development managers’ into surrounding communities to lure gentlemen back to the casino boats. One such female casino employee even stated that she was told to go to the popular bars and nightclubs in Lexington and pick up gentlemen to bring back to the casino.” Oh my.

Item #3: They post a column from right-wing nutjob Hugh Hewitt, in which he lavishes praise on McConnell for the filibuster to enable Bush’s Iraq policy.

My response:

Some comments on the three top stories on your website right now:

#1: I see that you posted the poll that showed the Governor’s race as being tight 2 weeks ago, just wondering why you haven’t posted the new SUSA poll showing Beshear stomping Fletcher? Perhaps the internet tubes are clogged and you haven’t received those yet. If so, I’m sorry to be the bearer of bad news.

#2: Is it wrong to ask about the causal linkage of casinos with rape and divorce? I’d be really interested to hear this explanation, especially from Ned Stan himself. And as far as the attractive women that go to bars in Lexington to pick up men: I need the names of the bars, Ned Stan. The NAMES, damnit!. Don’t Bogart this info just because you’re not interested, share the wealth.

#3: Additionally, I am glad that you finally found one conservative pundit that actually isn’t ashamed of Mitch McConnell. I know that this has been really difficult to find. I do like the fact that he’s praising Mitch for wrapping the Iraq anchor around the GOP’s neck too, it’s a nice touch.

All the best,
Joe

KY GOP Chair Steve Robertson: “Me no think so good. Flapping tongue hurt brain.”

Matt Gunterman July 11th, 2007

Ha! You know, these Kentucky GOP types just aren’t too bright. In fact, Kentucky Republican Party Chairman Steve Robertson, a Fletcherite through and through (and we all know how Fletcher has stacked his administration with the brightest bulbs available in the Republican party), gets today’s award for “Republican Who’s So Dumb He Can’t Comprehend How Stupid the Words Are Coming From His Mouth” (this award comes with no cash prize because it would bankrupt the benefactor in the space of a year).

Here’s what WHAS political reporter Mark Hebert is reporting Robertson had to say about the role of Democratic candidate for governor Steve Beshear and Kentucky Democratic Party Chairman Jonathan Miller:

GOP Tries To Tie Beshear to Session Fiasco

Kentucky Republican Party Chairman Steve Robertson says it was Democratic gubernatorial nominee Steve Beshear, along with party chairman Jonathan Miller, who orchestrated the House democrats’ decision to adjourn on the first day of the special legislative session called by Governor Fletcher.

[...]

Robertson says Beshear and Miller want to “torpedo” the special session so that Fletcher gets no credit for anything during the campaign for governor.

[...]

You know, Steve, July 2007 might just be a bit late for Fletcher to start building that “record of accomplishment” to impress the voters with.

Perhaps if Fletcher had spent less time figuring out ways to illegally get his cronies cushy state jobs, having to defend himself against all those indictments for all those illegal activities, jetting all over Asia and Europe and the USA on vacations disguised as official government business (anyone remember those truffles the governor dined on), making a mess of the state tax system, attempting to gut pension programs, doing the bidding of big business, and so on and so on — then perhaps Ernie Fletcher just might have a far more substantial record of accomplishment than he does now and he wouldn’t be having to throw something together at the last minute.

KY GOP: A Real Class Act

Terri Whitehouse July 11th, 2007

Via the Owensboro Messenger-Inquirer, Joe Biesk reports that the KY GOP is making robo-calls to Kentucky residents criticizing the House’s decision to adjourn after Governor Ernie Fletcher called a special session.

The House claimed that issues including tax incentives for power companies, more than $400 million in projects and a ban on domestic partner benefits at public universities were not urgent enough to justify the approximately $60,000 per day cost to operate the legislature. The Senate disagreed.

Yes - how dare they adjourn when there is corporate welfare to dole out and people left undiscriminated against!

But as Fletcher was making his public plea for compromise, the state Republican Party was launching a telephone offensive of between 150,000 to 180,000 phone calls to voters across the state criticizing House Democrats for their actions. The calls, which Fletcher’s campaign knew about, started in the afternoon and carried into the evening night.

The Kentucky Republican Party on Monday night targeted more than 40 members of the state House — mostly Democrats representing coal constituencies — with automated phone calls, state GOP Chairman Steve Robertson said.

I especially like this part of the article:

State Rep. Jeff Greer, D-Brandenburg, said calls to his constituents near Fort Knox claimed he was antimilitary. The Senate passed legislation Monday that would give an income tax break to members of the military.

Because, you know, the Republican Party has such an outstanding track record for giving a flip about military personnel.

As for KY Democratic Party Chairman Jonathan Miller, kudos for stating the obvious:

Nevertheless, Miller said the calls were evidence that Fletcher’s motivation for calling a special session was an attempt to spur his re-election campaign. Fletcher, a Republican, is seeking a second term against Beshear in the Nov. 6 election.

Dang, Fletcher. You’re about as transparent and substantive as a piece of saran wrap.

Sunday Roundup of Kentucky papers: Some important stuff here

Matt Gunterman July 8th, 2007

In case you missed it, here’s the roundup of what the Sunday papers in Kentucky had to say about the state of political affairs in the commonwealth.

From the Herald-Leader’s Joel Pett:

My only question: Where’s buttplugs?

* * * * *

And even though this Herald-Leader editorial on Senator Mitch McConnell appeared Thursday, it’s still worth a closer gander here.

What’s important about it? Essentially, it makes the case that McConnell is the wrong man and wrong type of man to be leading the Republicans in the Senate at this point in our nation’s history.

McConnell is vulnerable for reelection next year and he is very much aware of it. Vulnerability for party leaders in the Senate is a rather new development, really. In fact, it was unheard of until McConnell and his fellow Republicans took out Democratic leader Senator Tom Daschle in 2004. The editorial could have pointed out that McConnell, with the Daschle episode, sowed the seeds of his own current discomfort on that one, and perhaps it did allude to it in the lede: “Be careful what you wish for — you just might get it.” Yep. So, in short, McConnell poisoned his own well. He was willing to sacrifice institutional integrity and functionality for his and his party’s own short term gain, and it’s now biting him in the ass now and is likely ruining his own chance at having any sort of positive legacy as a leader in the Senate.

Read: McConnell’s Clout: Immigration Debacle Hurts Senator’s Prestige

* * * * *

The Herald-Leader also had an excellent editorial today debunking false claims being made by the Ernie Fletcher campaign about Steve Beshear’s involvement with Kentucky Central Life Insurance.

Read: Truth about Ky. Central and Steve Beshear: Candidate’s Old Law Firm Rescued Victims of Insurer’s Collapse.

* * * * *

The Courier-Journal today publishes a powerful editorial outlining many failures of leadership of Governor Ernie Fletcher, and it also highlights how others are stepping in to fill the void left by Fletcher’s failures.

Read: Why Not Leadership?

* * * * *

The dean of Kentucky political reporters, Al Cross, weighs in with his opinion of just how badly Governor Fletcher mishandled and misplayed his calling of the special session.

Read: Fletcher the Loser in Special Session Debacle

* * * * *

The best of the commentaries on Fletcher’s missteps on the special session comes from Larry Dale Keeling. You should read the entire piece, but I’ll include some excerpts below:

Fletcher never sees it coming
House had signaled adjournment for weeks

By Larry Dale Keeling
HERALD-LEADER COLUMNIST

FRANKFORT — From day one, Gov. Ernie Fletcher and his closest advisers have been plagued by an inability to anticipate the possible negative consequences of their actions.

It never seems to occur to them that their bright ideas may have down sides. More than anything else, it is this failure that has produced the frequent displays of political ineptitude derided by prominent members of Fletcher’s own party.

Thursday, when House Democrats effectively shut down his ill-considered special legislative session less than two hours after it began, Fletcher suffered another embarrassment that he and his aides should have seen coming. Everyone else did.

After all, House D’s had been signaling their intentions for the last couple of weeks, countering all his arguments about the urgent need to enact incentives for alternative-fuel plants with expert testimony and evidence to the contrary.

A politically savvy governor, even one trailing in the polls during a re-election campaign, would have backed off rather than risk humiliation.

But not Fletcher. Not only did he call a special session without agreement from all sides on the issues and legislation to be addressed, he eviscerated his own argument that the session was all about the urgency of dealing with energy incentives by tossing 66 other topics into the mix.

[...]

And Senate Republicans displayed no real enthusiasm for a fight with the House over continuing the special session.

During the debate on the House floor over the constitutionality of the Democrats’ vote to adjourn, Speaker Jody Richards dared, “Anybody want to go to court over it, have at it.”

Senate President David Williams had no interest in taking up that challenge. “I will not be a party to using the court system to try to force the other body back,” he said on the Senate floor.

[...]

Fletcher being Fletcher, and never anticipating consequences, he may well pursue some legal action. But the court hearings and briefs involved in such a case would just keep the weakness of his political leadership, as evidenced by his failures in this special session, in the news during the rest of the campaign.

[...]

Figuring out what’s up with these coal companies and the plants they want to build, perhaps

Matt Gunterman July 7th, 2007

WHAS’s political reporter Mark Hebert has an excellent post on his blog about the confusion among the coal companies, governor, legislature, and journalists surrounding just what’s trying to be located and built in Kentucky. I’ve posted excerpt’s from Hebert’s comments below.

OK, let’s take a moment here to consider just how incompetent the reelection effort of Governor Ernie Fletcher (R) really is, and let’s make our point of reference in that inquiry the political fiasco that is the special session that never was and never will be, or so it appears.

First, this coal-to-natural gas plant controversy doesn’t reverberate much outside of the Western and Eastern Coalfields, and — being from the Western Coalfield — I can tell you that, from the conversations I’ve been having with Democrats in the region, it doesn’t reverberate much there, either. Democrat Steve Beshear will win places like Union, Muhlenberg, and Hopkins Counties (the latter is his home county) quite handily. I did notice that the Owensboro Messenger-Inquirer editorial page endorsed the notion of the special session, and Representative Jim Gooch (D) went on record as furious at House Democratic leadership for adjourning when they did, but the general mood in this region is that Ernie Fletcher is not a viable candidate. Worst case scenario for Steve Beshear because of this: he barely loses Daviess and Henderson Counties (and I have a hard time imagining that) and wins the rest of the region outright. There is a great deal of anger in Owensboro — a great deal, and rightly so — about Fletcher’s veto of the second phase of the technology center at Owensboro Communion College.

Second, what Fletcher really needed out of this special session was to get back the projects that he vetoed earlier. To have those projects back would have provided Fletcher the opportunity to pass out over-sized checks across the state over the next three months and thus bask in the glory of the good press that comes with them. Fletcher’s fatal political mistake with all those vetoes was that he assumed that demonstrating “fiscal conservatism” would help him in the Republican primary, but fiscal conservatism was a theme that barely reared its head in that campaign, and it certainly little influenced votes. Ernie Fletcher’s win in that primary election, in fact, was propelled by his public celebration of his ability to doll out pork. Furthermore, if Fletcher had kept the projects intact originally, there’s no reason he couldn’t be handing out checks now. I seem to recall in the administration of Governor Paul Patton a substantial lag between announcements in the newspaper that my native county had received state funds for a project and the actual public presentation of the funds via giant check.

Third, by keeping the agenda of the special session so confused, Fletcher left the door open for Democrats to do what they did: make a good argument that the session is frivolous and simply an example of Fletcher playing politics. In other words, Fletcher played a miserable match of chess. If his campaign had had its wits about it, it would have mapped out a strategy to go after what it wanted while backing the Dems into a corner. Instead, Fletcher’s team focused like a laser on their narrow goals and didn’t seem to worry about leaving an out — or many outs, as was the case — for the Democrats. It’s as if the Fletcherites were too busy patting themselves on the back for being such geniuses to notice that they were being complete and total dingbats.

From Hebert:

[...]

First, some clarifications. The estimated economic impact of $10.8 billion dollars would be spread over 25 years, according to governor’s budget office. Indiana does not have similar incentives. And the Peabody Energy official, Rick Bowen, never said Kentucky would be out of the running for the Coal-to-NATURAL GAS plant if it didn’t approve a state incentive package within the next 90 days. In fact, Bowen hustled out a back door of the committee room, up the stairs and into a senate office, refusing to come out and answer reporters questions after his testimony. One of those questions was “if lawmakers don’t approve an energy bill with incentives for your plant, would that kill Kentucky’s chances?” Bowen did say he would “recommend” the plant be built in Kentucky if the legislature passes the incentive package proposed by the senate.

More info from today’s hearing: It was the first time anyone, including Gov. Fletcher had spoken with clarity about what kind of plant Peabody plans to locate within 90 days. As recently as two weeks ago, at an A and R meeting in Northern Kentucky, state officials and others were talking about an immediate need for incentives for a coal-to-liquid fuel plant or a coal-to-gas plant (interpreted as diesel). Peabody’s Bowen says the only plant it will build for sure is the coal-to-NATURAL GAS plant. They’re still studying whether a coal liquification plant is feasible. Even Sen. Robert Stivers (R) Manchester, who has been deeply involved in crafting energy legislation, admits there’s been widespread confusion among lawmakers, the Fletcher administration and news reporters about Peabody’s plans and what they need from Kentucky right now. In fact some legislators who defend Fletcher’s calling of the special session have been telling their constituents “you’re complaining about high gasoline prices. Well we’re trying to do something about it.” Not true in the short run, perhaps in the long run, but only if Peabody, other companies, Wall St. and Congress determine that coal-to-liquid plants are a good bet for America’s future energy needs.

House Speaker Richards says his meeting with Bowen went well. He believes Peabody would be fine with a letter signed by him, Senate President and Governor Fletcher promising state incentives and tax breaks for Peabody if it decides to locate the coal-to-NATURAL GAS plant in Kentucky. Richards says other companies who expanded in Kentucky, including UPS, G-E and Toyota have all been fine with the promise on paper. But Bowen told the senate committee that he didn’t believe Wall St. investors would sink money into a project based on a written promise. He says they’d prefer something more concrete, like a new state law.

Steve Beshear’s KY Blogger Conference Call

Joe Sonka July 6th, 2007

In an effort to reach out to the progressive KY blogosphere, soon-to-be-Governor Steve Beshear (D) conducted a conference call with several local bloggers. The roll call included: Matt, Shawn, Cliff, Jim and I from DitchMitchKY; Jonathan Singer from MyDD; and Ted Shlechter from The Bridge. (there might have been others, fill me in if I missed someone)

Beshear noted that the blogosphere is going to continue to play an important role in KY politics, not just in this year’s Governors race, but next year with the Congressional and Presidential campaigns. He felt that this call presented an opportunity to hear some concerns and feedback from us, and the gesture was greatly appreciated by all. Any candidate that wishes to have success in the next 2 years would do well to embrace the post-Bluegrass Report blogosphere.

Steve also noted that he was glad he avoided a run-off election in the primary, as the Kentucky Democrats appear to be united on all fronts and in good shape for this Fall. Though polls show him well ahead of Fletcher, he cautioned that we shouldn’t be overconfident. Fletcher is sure to raise and spend plenty of money for attack ads, which could always make it a close race. He did note that he plans on raising $4-5 million himself, excluding outside dollars.

Several of the questions and concerns dealt with Beshear’s advocacy of "clean coal" as the future of KY’s energy policy. Beshear said that he would sit down with leaders from all sides of the issue to reach some kind of common ground; allowing union leaders, environmentalists and industry to meet at the table. He also expressed a desire to enforce regulations on strip mining and mountaintop removal that are not currently followed through on. Additional funding for alternative technologies at universities will also be a top priority. He noted a quite interesting tidbit on the Peabody deal- that Peabody wouldn’t even have the feasibility study done for one of its plants until April. Which makes the special session plan a little….shady?

Beshear also talked a great deal about improving Kentucky’s economy. He noted that KY’s budget is currently woefully inadequate to fund everything that we are in need of. One method of increasing revenue, of course, is his plan to expand gaming. He also criticized the tactic of offering outside businesses tax breaks to move to KY as rather short-sided, in itself. He noted that such companies often move here for a few years, only to leave for Mexico or somewhere else where they can get even cheaper labor. Beshear wants to give small and medium sized independent businesses incentives to stay and thrive here in KY, and he also wants to fund job training programs.

When asked what he would do as Governor in the instance that a bill is passed which prohibits UK and UL from implementing its domestic partner benefits plan, he said that he would veto it. We need to help our universities compete nationally, and having the government impose such a restriction will not allow them to attract and keep our best candidates.

The folks at DitchMitchKY, BlueGrassRoots, The Bridge and MyDD thanked Beshear for setting up this conference call, as it shows a good deal of respect for both the KY blogosphere and grassroots activism. As local blogs in Connecticut and Virginia showed last year, we can have a huge impact on the political scene. We’re glad that Beshear and his staff have recognized this new political reality.

(crossposted at BlueGrassRoots)

The Arena: Senate President David Williams (R) won’t go to court over House adjournment

Matt Gunterman July 6th, 2007

The Courier-Journal’s political blog, The Arena, has this interesting nugget today:

Williams: I won’t take matter to courts

Senate President David Williams, R-Burkesville, said at 7:35 p.m. that he would not be party to taking the matter of agreement on adjourning special session to court.

After the House adjourned sine die this afternoon, there has been debate over whether the House must return in three days if the Senate also does not adjourn.

“I will not be a party to using the court system to try to force the other body back into any active role,” Williams said.

He said instead, he urges the House members to cool off over the weekend and return on Monday.

Senate Minority Floor Leader Ed Worley said he blames the governor’s lack of leadership for what transpired today.

“This thing has reached a point that it is over unless the governor shows the leadership to get the House and the Senate leadership together and move these issues forward,” Worley said.

What do you think? I myself have to say that Senate President David William (R) telling House Dems to cool their jets over the weekend is about as tepid a response from that man as you can get. In fact, on the Larry Forgy Political Seismography Scale (which is the metric used to measure these sorts of Republican responses in Kentucky), I’d rate that about a 2.0 at best.

Where’s the passion for your governor David Williams? Where’s your anger and sense of betrayal? Why aren’t you sticking up for ol’ Ernie?

Steve Beshear: Today’s events in Frankfort are the result of three years of Ernie Fletcher’s failures

Matt Gunterman July 5th, 2007

So, according to PolWatchers, it appears that Governor Ernie Fletcher (R) and Senate Republicans — as they have very little to lose — are ready to bet the farm on drawing the conflict with the House into a constitutional crisis.

Who’s likely to win and lose in all this?

Well, I can’t imagine that the coal companies that — via their letters of support — aided and abetted Fletcher’s call for the special session will be too happy. Why? Because the specifics of their plans — or lack thereof — will come under much more media scrutiny. The coal companies are either going to have to come out fighting for Fletcher — and assume that Democrats will just forget and forgive once Fletcher is defeated (and King Coal ain’t what he used to be, let me tell you), or they’re going to have to quickly get out of this fight. I think we’ll see the latter.

One of the strangest things about this strategy for me about Fletcher picking this fight is that he hasn’t a chance of winning the Western Coalfield or the Eastern Coalfield. There’s no way in heck that Fletcher wins Union, Henderson, Muhlenberg, Hopkins Counties or the like. In a close election perhaps there’s an argument to be made about suppressing turnout and support in your opponent’s backyard, but Fletcher’s got to worry about winning any region. This coal issue does nothing to help Fletcher in the Golden Triangle.

The REAL meat that Fletcher wanted from this session was the projects that he vetoed, and he’s not going to get those even if the Governor and General Assembly do come to some agreement on what the session agenda can rightly include.

Beshear/Mongiardo for Kentucky

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE:
July 5th, 2007


BESHEAR NOTES FLETCHER’S FAILED LEADERSHIP

Steve Beshear Traces Today’s Events Back to Governor’s Failure To Lead On Important Issues

(Frankfort, KY) Democratic nominee for Governor Steve Beshear this afternoon expressed his disappointment in Governor Fletcher’s failed leadership.

“I have said all along that a Governor should not take the extraordinary measure of calling a special session in the absence of agreement with the legislature on the agenda and the pressing need for the session,” said Beshear. “It is apparent that the Governor did not get such an agreement and that is why it failed.”

The Beshear/Mongiardo campaign has proposed an aggressive energy platform that calls for an incentive package to encourage a wide range of energy firms to do business in Kentucky. The plan would also create a cabinet level Secretary of Energy Independence position to organize and focus resources on this effort.

“Mr. Fletcher has had 3 years to put a comprehensive energy plan in place,” said Beshear. “His failure to do so, including his complete absence just a few months ago in regards to Rep. Rock Adkins energy bill, should not be subsidized by the taxpayers of Kentucky. Especially given that Kentucky has already given out $400,000 for a feasibility study that won’t be completed until April of 2008.”

The Beshear/Mongiardo Fueling Kentucky First plan, available at www.SteveBeshear.com, would create a $60 million Kentucky Energy Fund to help jump-start the development of alternative fuels and new clean coal technology industries. By providing $15 million in incentive grants and research funding each year, the Kentucky Energy Fund will create a public/private partnership that will make Kentucky a national leader in the production, distribution and sale of home grown fuels like corn ethanol (fuel produced from burning corn), bio-diesel (clean burning alternative fuel commonly made of soy, animal fats and/or wastes, or vegetable oils), and cellulosic ethanol (ethanol blend of grasses and agriculture wastes, such as switch grass and stalks), as well as clean coal (coal that is purged of some minerals and impurities) and coal to liquid and coal to gas technologies.

By dramatically ramping up the private sectors ability to produce alternative fuels to power our cars and trucks, as well as investing in renewable and other clean power generation technologies, Kentucky can become one of the first states to become energy independent - while providing a well needed boost to our rural economies across the state.

# # #

House Democrats put a stop to Governor Ernie Fletcher’s bid to blow taxpayer dollars on frivolous special session

Matt Gunterman July 5th, 2007

Speaker Jody Richards (D) and the other Democratic leaders in the House deserve much praise for calling the hand of Governor Ernie Fletcher (R) on this wasteful and unconstitutional special session, a move that Fletcher hoped would prop up his flailing reelection campaign. Short and sweet: Fletcher called this session to provide political welfare to his waning candidacy.

I am proud of the House Democrats for what they did today.

In dramatic fashion, Richards addressed the House from the floor of the chamber. From the Herald-Leader’s PolWatchers blog:

[...]

“I take the unusual step of rising to address this body on a simple but important question: has the governor justified calling the General Assembly into special session at a cost of $60,000 per day to the Kentucky taxpayer?” he asked rhetorically. “Anyone who has followed events since the governor first threatened to call a special session knows that the answer to this question is a clear, resounding and unequivocal, ‘No.’”

Richards said it was “simply not good stewardship of the taxpayer money,” he said, sparking applause at 4:25 p.m.

He argued that the revelation that the plant Fletcher’s administration has been referring to is a coal-to-natural gas facility, which Richards said undermines the governor’s argument that the project could help reduce dependence on foreign-produced oil.

It would “not produce a single gallon of transportation fuels.”

“When gubernatorial politics are taken out of the equation, we all know that the legislature will be able to timely address this and all other important issues when we convene the regular session in January,” he said.

He continued his speech saying that none of the 67 items Fletcher called the General Assembly into special session to consider rise to the level of emergency.

“Not only does this show no concern for the enormous daily cost of a session, it also flies in the face of the constitution,” Richards said. “The framers did not intend for governors to identify a single emergency issue as a pretext to shoehorn myriad non-emergency issues in an extraordinary session. Rather, they specifically warned against lumping in dozens of local projects, which would unduly lengthen the session at taxpayer expense.”

He called Fletcher’s call for a session “ill-conceived” and called upon the Senate to adjourn as well and forfeit their legislative salaries, he said, sparking scattered applause.

“We have a duty to protect the Constitution from being manipulated for the sake of political expediency,” he said.

[...]

Hebert: House Democrats will say “No” to welfare for Republican politicians

Matt Gunterman July 4th, 2007

WHAS political reporter Mark Hebert is reporting that Kentucky Democratic House leaders — in a bold and principled move — will adjourn the House on Thursday before Governor Ernie Fletcher’s (R) superfluous Special Session of the General Assembly kicks off.

In doing so, they will save the taxpayers of Kentucky $60,000 a day and deprive Frankfort Republicans of hundreds of thousands of dollars in political welfare payments.

I hear Representative and Attorney General candidate Stan Lee (R) is particularly upset because he was going to use all the extra money he’d make not only to prop up his flailing November campaign, but to take his Sunday School class to Kentucky’s brand-new, state-of-the-fundie-arts Creation Museum.