We thought it’d be a good idea to do a refresher on some of the major Beshear eff ups from 2008. These are by no means the most important and are in no particular order. In some cases, we selected random stories out of dozens that are related.
- Chuck Wolfe lying his ass off to Stephen George over 8664 [Link]
- Failing to get casino gambling legislation passed, summarily killing any chance of ever working with the House Dems again [Link 1 & Link 2]
- Ignorantly firing Eric Landis, who was active-duty military at the time, because he was a Fletcher appointee [Link]
- Failing to pass a cancer stick tax [Link]
- Consistently failing to do anything positive for education [Link]
- Keeping Jennifer Moore at the helm of the Kentucky Democratic Party. Could be argued (easily) that this decision cost Kentucky dearly on several fronts [Way too many stories]
- Screwing with the U.S. Senate race and lying about it [Link]
- Hiring Jim “King Maker” Cauley to be the governor’s chief of staff [Link]
- Hiring Phil Osborne, finding out that it is unethical, then hiring everyone from his firm as a consolation prize [Link 1 & Link 2]
- Failing to communicate with the media, at all, and burning bridges, bringing in a new Chief of Staff nearly a year later [Link]
- Allowing the Governor to meet casino baron Bill Yung and then lying about it [Link]
8 responses so far ↓
1 TJ // Dec 17, 2008 at 3:24 pm
Most of this was pre-Edelen…
2 jake // Dec 17, 2008 at 3:30 pm
… who was mentioned in our list as being brought in almost too late…
3 TJ // Dec 17, 2008 at 3:46 pm
… late, but not “too” late…
4 East Ender // Dec 17, 2008 at 3:51 pm
add another…
firing people at the psc in march then hiring them back within weeks and then firing them all again after the legislative session. how stupid can you look?
5 sportschix // Dec 17, 2008 at 5:50 pm
I know space is limited in print but one of the many benefits of a blog means more space. Jake, you could go on and on forever……… I have zero confidence in our governor.
6 Republican // Dec 17, 2008 at 7:11 pm
The biggest mistake was when the voters of this state rejected a good governor, based on trumped up charges steeped in partisan payback, for this buffoon
7 jake // Dec 17, 2008 at 7:36 pm
Haha. Riiiiight.
Ernie Fletcher was SO innocent! (Never mind the ignorance that is/was Greg Stumbo….)
8 Charles // Dec 18, 2008 at 7:33 am
What the real issue is here that we’ve been saddled with multiple incompetent and often crooked administrations for the past 25 years. When a state like Kentucky can rank 44th in income since basically 1939 it says to me that there is an incompetent culture being supported there. When you can rank 47th in education, it says that your state does not care about basic, primary, and higher education.
When your state is consistently among the worst in health categories and socioeconomic factors it speaks volumes about the state government and the citizenry having an approach to basic health care. When probably half to three quarters of the population is addicted to high calorie foods, cigarettes, and every other unhealthy habit it speaks volumes.
This mess wasn’t created just by Governor Stevie but it was created by the state legislature and the political hacks that have been creating a state of misery and impoverishment for quite some time. When hundreds of millions if not billions have been poured into Appalachia without any real success, what is the problem. Still despite infrastructure improvements, school improvements, etc it is still a culture of dependency.
This problem was not conceived overnight by a buffoon in Frankfort in the past 5 or 6 years. In fact, its been created for the last 30….40…..50 years. Not an overnight phenomena. To clean up this mess this state needs to focus on restoring common sense to state and local government and removing those that have none. The same could be said about local businesses that have basically trashed this city and shut their doors with no regard for anyone else.
Taxing your citizenry at 6 percent of their income on state income taxes also hurts because it creates lower wage jobs through people not having more money to spend on items that create higher wage jobs. Not to mention the 2.2 percent Jefferson County occupational tax which is higher than any county in the State of Indiana. I used to live across the river so I know a bit about that.
Also, it might help a lot to really push for economic development and real job creation in Louisville and other parts of the state. Focusing people on careers chucking boxes and opening warehouse jobs that pay 8 to 10 dollars an hour isn’t economic prosperity, its economic deprivation of the local population.
When your city has thousands if not tens of thousands of temp jobs and the employment market has been increasingly hijacked by staffing companies, you have another problem of wealth inequality because the temp agencies take anywhere from 20 to 30 percent of the wages just to have someone place a candidate into a position that may last only a few months in some cases or never go full time. What the temp employers really are is leeches because instead of getting a real job they have to drain the blood of the working person. Ever wonder why places have such high turnover.
Anyway, thats all for now and hope everyone has a merry Holiday season
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