Published: December 07, 2007 08:41 am            

The unbridled goodbye gift

Readers Views

You really had me going, stringing me along

You really had me going, baby

And now I’m gone.

— Holly Dunn



For each of the past four years, I’ve received a Christmas card from Kentucky Gov. Ernie Fletcher. I kept each up in my living room until the next one arrived.

Because the card kept coming, I figured that the governor really enjoyed my book, “The Unbridled World of Ernie Fletcher.” That or he never got around to updating his mailing list.

I suspect the latter is true.

I’m sure my cards ended as Fletcher is leaving office on Dec. 11. He left an even bigger gift for incoming Gov. Steve Beshear.

A budget deficit.

While he ran for re-election, Gov. Fletcher kept talking about a $200 million surplus. He wanted a special session so he could divvy out all that extra cash.

Now that Fletcher is leaving, he calculated that the state is running $389 million short.

A pretty big OOPS, wouldn’t you think?

I don’t want to say the governor played around with the budget for political reasons. Governor Fletcher never did anything that made sense politically. There was no sense in starting now.

A clever governor would have done all kinds of budget voodoo, but Fletcher’s administration was defined by its lack of cleverness and cunning.

I was one of those people who thought Fletcher would eventually “get it.” Even though I frequently criticized him, until May, I thought he would get re-elected. I figured that it was difficult to knock off someone who was a Kentucky governor and that Fletcher would eventually apologize for his mistakes.

The apology never happened. No matter what went wrong, Fletcher never took responsibility. Not even after he lost by a huge margin.

Americans forgive people who say they are sorry. Because Fletcher never apologized, there was no forgiveness. Only atonement.

Fletcher will be to the Kentucky Republican’s what Michael Dukakis is to the national Democratic party. A candidate who everyone tries to forget about. Dukakis was a forgotten figure a year after he lost the presidency and I suspect Fletcher will be the same. You won’t see fellow Republicans such as Sen. Mitch McConnell invoking his name and I doubt Fletcher will stay active in politics.

Fletcher will spend the rest of his life convinced that he did nothing wrong. That lack of introspection cost him the governorship.

Beshear and many past governors came to the taping of Al Smith’s last show on “Comment on Kentucky.” Fletcher missed the gig, but I guess Kentucky Educational Television does not have a $5,000 secret door for him.

Beshear told me that he would not use the secret door and that he planned on walking the 500 feet from the governor’s office to the governor’s mansion. Fletcher took a limo.

The conversation showed that: 1. Beshear read my book. 2. He got my greater message. Symbols of government waste matter.

Spending $5,000 on a secret door, driving 500 feet in a limo and using state tax dollars to promote Fletcher’s dog are trivial compared to a $389 million deficit, but door, limo and dogs are symbols of government waste. They send a message of disconnect between an elitist government and taxpayers.

High salaries for the governor’s assistants and millions for economic incentives can be argued as investments in the state’s future. You can agree or disagree as to their value.

The secret door and limo rides are not an investment in anything. They are pure waste.

The governor needed to get out of the limo and connect to average Kentuckians.

He’ll come out from behind the secret door on Dec. 11, but give a parting gift.

One that we will remember in 389 million ways.



Don McNay writes for the Richmond (Ky.) Register. He can be reached at don@mcnay.com.

        

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