Joseph Gerth Sees A Lot Of Kentucky Legislators "Misbehavior Seems To Be Spreading In Frankfort". I Ask: What Else Is New?
Joseph Gerth | Misbehavior seems to be spreading in Frankfort
FRANKFORT, Ky. — The late Gov. Wallace Wilkinson, after a particularly rough stretch with the General Assembly, once asked what they were putting in the drinks at Flynn’s.
Flynn’s, the famous Frankfort watering hole that was long a second home to legislators, has long been closed, but after the last couple of weeks in the capital city, one might still think that someone’s been slipping Mickeys to folks around here.
Call it what you want but it sure seemed a lot like legislators (or wannabe legislators) behaving badly recently.
There was Democratic state Sen. Julian Carroll, the former governor, who made it on national television shouting to the constituent of another senator that he ought to move to another country.
There was Senate candidate Jack Ditty, a dermatologist, who visited the office of his November opponent, Sen. Robin Webb. Problem was the other doctor who went with him was surreptitiously taping the discussion.
And then, the day a story about that appeared in the newspaper, Republican Senate Clerk Donna Robinson Holiday accused Webb of calling Senate President David Williams an obscene name while on the floor.
And who says these folks aren’t focused on what’s important to Kentuckians.
The Carroll incident came out of a partisan battle over a bill that would allow independent voters to opt to vote in either the Republican or Democratic primaries. Currently, independents can only vote in non-partisan races in the primary.
Democrats, and most notably Carroll, have argued that only members of a political party should be allowed to choose a party’s nominee. Moreover, Carroll argues such a plan would encourage people to register as independents, which he says would lead to the downfall of the Republican and Democratic parties.
He may very well be right, but he raised more than a few eyebrows with his performance on Campbell Brown’s show on CNN while a camera crew followed Mike Lewis, who is pushing for the change in the law.
“What you’re saying is ‘I don’t like the way America runs its political system.’ Well you don’t like it, move to another country,” Carroll told Lewis before turning his back and storming away.
After seeing the show, one Courier-Journal reader wrote in an e-mail, “Senator Carroll just embarrassed this entire state. Is this really how our government representatives conduct themselves? Seriously.”
Carroll’s frustration was apparent and one might argue he simply lost his temper in the heat of the moment. But the Ditty incident appeared well-planned.
He and Dr. Henry Goodman, an Ashland neurologist, went to Webb’s office purportedly to talk about legislation sought by the Kentucky Medical Association.
But part of the way through the meeting (after an electronic beeping noise continually interrupted the meeting) Webb spied a small lens and asked, “Are you taping me?”
Democratic floor leader Ed Worley, D-Richmond, complained that Ditty and Goodman were taping Webb in an effort to catch her saying or doing something embarrassing. Republicans denied it.
Goodman argued that taping Webb wasn’t illegal, and Ditty denied any knowledge of it.
In fact, Ditty claimed that he had so much lack of knowledge of a plan to tape Webb that he told Goodman before walking into Webb’s office not to tape her.
We’re not certain why he would need to admonish Goodman not to do something that he had no idea Goodman was going to do anyway.
And if he was going to warn people not to do things they ought not do, you wonder if during that meeting, he maybe should have warned Webb not to say nasty things about the Senate president.
Holiday said what Webb called Williams was so awful that she wouldn’t repeat it.
Webb said she simply called Willliams a “dictator” because he had without explanation referred a resolution she filed to a committee rather than sending it to the floor, like most simple resolutions.
Holiday apparently heard only part of the word that Webb said she used. And we don’t think Holiday heard Webb call Williams a “tater.”
But it might be a good thing they’re not busy passing legislation like the state Senate in Georgia. Politicians in the Peach State passed a bill that would prohibit corporations and rogue doctors from implanting microchips in people without permission — despite the fact that there doesn’t appear to be a problem with that sort of thing.
But who knows, a good microchipping might just be the 21st-century form of a Mickey.
Joseph Gerth's column appears on Mondays. He can be reached at (502) 582-4702 or at jgerth@courier-journal.com. His mailing address is 525 W. Broadway, P.O. Box 740031, Louisville, KY 40201-7431.
FRANKFORT, Ky. — The late Gov. Wallace Wilkinson, after a particularly rough stretch with the General Assembly, once asked what they were putting in the drinks at Flynn’s.
Flynn’s, the famous Frankfort watering hole that was long a second home to legislators, has long been closed, but after the last couple of weeks in the capital city, one might still think that someone’s been slipping Mickeys to folks around here.
Call it what you want but it sure seemed a lot like legislators (or wannabe legislators) behaving badly recently.
There was Democratic state Sen. Julian Carroll, the former governor, who made it on national television shouting to the constituent of another senator that he ought to move to another country.
There was Senate candidate Jack Ditty, a dermatologist, who visited the office of his November opponent, Sen. Robin Webb. Problem was the other doctor who went with him was surreptitiously taping the discussion.
And then, the day a story about that appeared in the newspaper, Republican Senate Clerk Donna Robinson Holiday accused Webb of calling Senate President David Williams an obscene name while on the floor.
And who says these folks aren’t focused on what’s important to Kentuckians.
The Carroll incident came out of a partisan battle over a bill that would allow independent voters to opt to vote in either the Republican or Democratic primaries. Currently, independents can only vote in non-partisan races in the primary.
Democrats, and most notably Carroll, have argued that only members of a political party should be allowed to choose a party’s nominee. Moreover, Carroll argues such a plan would encourage people to register as independents, which he says would lead to the downfall of the Republican and Democratic parties.
He may very well be right, but he raised more than a few eyebrows with his performance on Campbell Brown’s show on CNN while a camera crew followed Mike Lewis, who is pushing for the change in the law.
“What you’re saying is ‘I don’t like the way America runs its political system.’ Well you don’t like it, move to another country,” Carroll told Lewis before turning his back and storming away.
After seeing the show, one Courier-Journal reader wrote in an e-mail, “Senator Carroll just embarrassed this entire state. Is this really how our government representatives conduct themselves? Seriously.”
Carroll’s frustration was apparent and one might argue he simply lost his temper in the heat of the moment. But the Ditty incident appeared well-planned.
He and Dr. Henry Goodman, an Ashland neurologist, went to Webb’s office purportedly to talk about legislation sought by the Kentucky Medical Association.
But part of the way through the meeting (after an electronic beeping noise continually interrupted the meeting) Webb spied a small lens and asked, “Are you taping me?”
Democratic floor leader Ed Worley, D-Richmond, complained that Ditty and Goodman were taping Webb in an effort to catch her saying or doing something embarrassing. Republicans denied it.
Goodman argued that taping Webb wasn’t illegal, and Ditty denied any knowledge of it.
In fact, Ditty claimed that he had so much lack of knowledge of a plan to tape Webb that he told Goodman before walking into Webb’s office not to tape her.
We’re not certain why he would need to admonish Goodman not to do something that he had no idea Goodman was going to do anyway.
And if he was going to warn people not to do things they ought not do, you wonder if during that meeting, he maybe should have warned Webb not to say nasty things about the Senate president.
Holiday said what Webb called Williams was so awful that she wouldn’t repeat it.
Webb said she simply called Willliams a “dictator” because he had without explanation referred a resolution she filed to a committee rather than sending it to the floor, like most simple resolutions.
Holiday apparently heard only part of the word that Webb said she used. And we don’t think Holiday heard Webb call Williams a “tater.”
But it might be a good thing they’re not busy passing legislation like the state Senate in Georgia. Politicians in the Peach State passed a bill that would prohibit corporations and rogue doctors from implanting microchips in people without permission — despite the fact that there doesn’t appear to be a problem with that sort of thing.
But who knows, a good microchipping might just be the 21st-century form of a Mickey.
Joseph Gerth's column appears on Mondays. He can be reached at (502) 582-4702 or at jgerth@courier-journal.com. His mailing address is 525 W. Broadway, P.O. Box 740031, Louisville, KY 40201-7431.
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