As I Predicted, A BRAWL Is Brewing In Kentucky's House Speakership Between Jody Richards And Greg Stumbo, Governor Steve Beshear Has Stumbo's Back.

Read more, and prepare for body parts to fly. Meanwhile, read the story below:

Battle brewing between Richards, Stumbo over Speaker job

If recent rhetoric is any indication, a leadership battle indeed is brewing between House Speaker Jody Richards and the man who helped install him in that post nearly 14 years ago.

State Rep. Greg Stumbo, the Prestonsburg Democrat who returned to the House this spring after a four-year stint as attorney general, has gradually ramped up his pointed criticism of the House leadership and, specifically, Richards.

”I think the membership feels that the session was pretty much a disaster. And the truth is, when your company goes bad or something happens, the guy in charge gets the blame. Rightly or wrongly, I hear more people complain about Speaker Richards than any of the other members of leadership,“ Stumbo said.

He added that he's ”not obviously campaigning at this time“ to challenge Richards for the speaker's post during the legislative leadership elections in January.

”But on the other hand, there's a growing number of members that have expressed extreme disappointment“ with Richards, Stumbo said.

Richards, a Bowling Green bookseller who has served in the House since 1976, said he has been collecting commitments from the more than 60 Democrats in that chamber since the regular session ended in April.

His message to Stumbo is: Bring it on.

”If that's what he chooses to do, that's fine. I feel very, very good. I feel like there's more support for me now,“ Richards said. ”Where I'm really surprised is the support in Eastern Kentucky, especially against Greg.“

After Stumbo, who was the House Democrats' floor leader from 1985 to 2003, returned to the legislature in the spring, he said it was unlikely he'd take on Richards, whom he pushed to get the speaker's post in 1995.

Then in June, Stumbo told the Herald-Leader ”it was a mistake for the Democratic leadership in the House not to support“ Gov. Steve Beshear in the 2008 session more than it did.

Last week, he told The Courier-Journal of Louisville that he hadn't eliminated a run for the speaker position.

And in an interview Friday, he said he's sensing hints of tectonic shift among his party's lawmakers that he had not felt in more than a decade.

”The question is how widespread is it? Is it just 15 people or is it more like 30 or 35 people? And you have to wait and engage that,“ Stumbo said. ”What I do know is that there's not a groundswell of support to keep going the way things have been going.“

All this has escalated the likelihood of the fiercest intra-party skirmish since Richards wrested the speaker's podium from Joe Clarke in January 1995. In fact, there's eerie symmetry between current conditions and what happened then.

In August 1994, Stumbo — then considered the most powerful lawmaker in the House — held a private meeting to decide whether Richards or Speaker Pro Tem Larry Clark of Louisville should take on Clarke. When they came out, Richards was the anointed challenger.

Larry Clark, still the speaker pro tem, is now on the outs with Richards. Richards is supporting Shively Rep. Joni Jenkins' challenge to Clark for the pro tem spot in January.

So Stumbo might again end up choosing between those two men if he aligns with Clark to take on Richards and Jenkins.

One other variable in this is what role Democrat Beshear plays.

Last week, Beshear said he would stay out of House leadership races and didn't speak to Stumbo about that subject when the two met in Prestonsburg earlier this month.

But Stumbo had a different recollection.

”What he asked me was if I was interested in getting back into legislative leadership. And I said, "Yeah, I enjoyed it (previously),' “ Stumbo said. ”Then he asked, "If you got back into legislative leadership, would you and I have any problems?' And I said "No.' “

Who can best unite Democrats — administration officials and legislators alike — might be the crux of a Stumbo-Richards fight.

”I believe people want to see things done and are tired of this bickering going on. We as Democrats make ourselves look worse,“ he said. ”And I didn't come back here to be a part of nothing.“