NO DICE STEVE

Paul Patton is certainly not a guy Democrats want to remember fondly, if at all, but Steve Beshear could have learned something from the Pride of Pikeville. Specifically, the largely successful first term he enjoyed and the way he went about including Democrats and minority Republicans into his legislative agenda.

Instead, Gov. Beshear has somehow got it in his head if he just wishes hard enough it will be the 1970s all over, when Wendell Ford or Julian Carroll could just bark orders up to the third floor of the Capitol.

Sorry to break the news, but there is a big majority of Republicans in the state Senate (keeps getting bigger) and they are led by the man Gov. Beshear wanted to blow off a few months ago, you know, the one tap-dancing on the grave of the casino bill.

And the Democrats in the House are already bugging out, the Bob Damrons and Jim Gooches are going full bore right wing on gun laws, domestic partner insurance and illegal immigrants. Who needs Republicans here? Rep. Jim Wayne, not exactly your conservative maverick type, has even begun calling Beshear a "Rip Van Winkle" asleep from Kentucky politics for 20 years.

This session of the General Assembly is already set as a bust for the new administration. It will be interesting to see who gets canned in May and if a modern approach can be found. But Gov. Beshear does have one thing going in his favor as he regroups and thinks over his situation the rest of the year. Jack Conway probably won't indict him.