From Joel Pett, on the real cause of morale issues in the U.S. military -
Former vice presidential candidate Sarah Palin appears to have take on an increasingly political and active role since she resigned from public office and became just Private Citizen Palin.
Sarah Palin (AP photo)
But as the New York Times details in an article today, Palin’s exit from elected office is an entrance into an increasingly connected role in American politics, including her headlining spot for the Tea Party convention wrapping up today in Nashville. Palin entered the U.S. Senate race fray here in Kentucky this week with her endorsement of Republican Rand Paul of Bowling Green, himself a darling of the Tea Party movement.
The article offered the following assessment of what Palin has become -
Ms. Palin represents a new breed of unelected public figures operating in an environment in which politics, news media and celebrity are fused as never before. Whether she ever runs for anything else, Ms. Palin has already achieved a status that has become an end in itself: access to an electronic bully pulpit, a staff to guide her, an enormous income and none of the bother or accountability of having to govern or campaign for office.
“Few public figures not in office have leveraged the nexus between media and political positioning as Sarah Palin has,” said the Washington lawyer Robert Barnett (who negotiated, among other things, Ms. Palin’s lucrative deal with Fox News, an arrangement with the Washington Speaker’s Bureau that pays her a reported $100,000 a pop, and a deal with Harper Collins to write her memoir, “Going Rogue,” which has already earned her upward of eight figures).
It’s interesting to note the team Palin has assembled to surround her and carry her forward, with the team just as formidable if not more so than when she was running for the second-highest elected office in the country.
Apparently her endorsement of Paul isn’t sitting well with some in the Republican establishment. From the article -
Her scheduled appearance in Nashville on Saturday incited cries of “sellout” from other Tea Party factions that objected to the high cost of tickets to the convention ($549). Many of her “establishment” supporters were confounded by her decision to endorse Mr. Paul, who is facing Secretary of State Trey Grayson in the Kentucky Senate primary and who is the son of Ron Paul, the former presidential candidate of libertarian bent.
“I’m disappointed by her endorsement of Paul,” said William Kristol, the editor of The Weekly Standard and one of the conservatives credited with “discovering” Ms. Palin in 2007. “But they always disappoint you.”
Republican candidates have alternately pleaded for her support and avoided her like frostbite. Rep. Roy Blunt, for instance, a Republican Senate candidate in Missouri, has lobbied for Ms. Palin to appear on his behalf (to no avail, so far), whereas Scott Brown, the new Republican senator from Massachusetts, claimed he had never spoken to her before later acknowledging that an election-night phone call from Ms. Palin had “slipped his mind.”
As the article notes, Palin is “vocal and visible” and ready for a variety of roles. Any ideas which role’s coming next?
Ronnie Ellis with CNHI News Service has a great column this week, as is usually the case.
With a momentary pause in the action while the House prepares its version of the state’s budget proposal, Ellis takes some time to ask some questions about exactly what’s going on in Frankfort these days. And, Ellis notes, in true Frankfort form, this game of 20 questions might not actually add up to 20 questions.
One of several good questions from Ellis’s column today -
There was a special House election last Tuesday. Gov. Steve Beshear went to Lexington for the University of Kentucky basketball game. UK fan and House Speaker Greg Stumbo, D-Prestonsburg, was in Marion County that night, skipping the ball game in order to be in the district where a Democrat won Sen. Jimmy Higdon’s old House seat. When Beshear was active in the 14th Senate District special election, Republican Higdon won. When he neglected the House special election, Democrat Terry Mills won. Who do Democrats see as the more effective political leader?
And Ellis’s explanation for why he comes up short of 20 questions?
OK, so that’s only five questions – not 20. But I work in Frankfort and my arithmetic is at least as good as Beshear’s on the number of votes for gambling in the Senate or lawmakers’ ability to balance receipts and expenditures in the state budget.
Be sure to check out the rest of Ellis’s column.
The Lexington Herald-Leader’s editorial board has a pretty harsh, but accurate, assessment of what has kept Kentucky from moving forward during the last decade.
As the board’s editorial today notes, after modest gains in the late ’90s and the early part of last decade, Kentucky has failed to move forward economically. The board places the blame for the lack of progress on the officials elected to lead this state.
Looking at the politically fueled debates and inability to find consensus in Frankfort makes it hard to dispute the claim levied in the editorial -
Kentucky’s economic problems are complicated. One conclusion is not: Kentucky is falling behind because its leaders have failed to deliver. The state remains mired in parochial pork-barrel politics, urban-rural feuds and petty corruption and patronage. In Frankfort, we’ve witnessed a decade of partisan backbiting. Rather than grow a knowledge-based economy, Kentucky built empty industrial parks and handed out tax breaks to lure businesses that stayed until they could find a cheaper place to relocate.
The legislature and governors from both parties have failed to come to grips with fundamental problems such as an obsolete tax structure.
The editorial goes on to note the failings of Kentucky’s higher education institutions, and the fact the state is just now getting around to providing a seamless transition between community colleges and four-year schools.
At Thursday’s Rooster Booster breakfast in Owensboro, Greater Owensboro Economic Development Corp. president Nick Brake said that the economic future looks bright for this community. Reading this editorial makes one question whether any of that optimism should extend to the state as a whole.
A recent report by CNN brought one Kentuckian’s drive to let Independent voters participate in party primary elections into the spotlight.
Sen. Julian Carroll, a Frankfort Democrat (LRC photo)
The report followed one man’s lobbying attempts to the halls of the Capitol and Capitol Annex, and found at least one lawmaker irritated by the proposal – former Gov. Julian Carroll, who now represents Franklin County in the Kentucky Senate.
Take a look at the report (Thanks to Page One Kentucky for posting it) and weigh in – do you think that Independent voters should be able to vote in party primaries?
Under Senate Bill 53 approved this week, they would be able to in the future. And one minor detail – the reporter, David Mattingly, claims that the vote was split along party lines, but that wasn’t actually the case. Several Democrats, including Sen. David Bowell of Sorgho, voted for the Republican-supported measure, as did the chamber’s only Independent, Bob Leeper of Paducah.
From Marc Murphy, on the measure recently approved in the Kentucky House that would ban texting while driving, from today’s M-I editorial page -
Looking ahead to this year, Owensboro Mayor Ron Payne said one of his priorities will be to stabilize funding for the arts.
Kim Johnson with Owensboro Dance Theatre dances to the blues song "Too Much Barbeque" during rehearsal last year of "IN CONCERT featuring Kentucky, Oh Kentucky."
The city has been a major contributor to community arts groups for years, and is essentially diverting taxpayer dollars to help support these arts organizations that add so much to this community. Arts groups here, as is the case in many cities, are struggling with the recession, and struggling with funding in general.
In an earlier editorial, we encouraged the city to continue its arts funding, and make an appeal to local businesses to step up their contributions to arts organizations. When the editorial board was discussing the issue, Publisher Bob Morris offered the idea that the city and arts groups look at establishing a payroll deduction program, similar to the way many businesses help support United Way, as a way to encourage and generate more financial support for arts groups.
Louisville, like many other cities, has the Fund for the Arts that offers major support for the operating budgets of a number of groups including the Actors Theatre of Louisville, Kentucky Opera, the Louisville Ballet and the Louisville Orchestra.
Andrew Adler with the Courier-Journal reported Sunday that these groups are faring better during these tough economic times, in part because of their own efforts to streamline operations and cut costs, but also because of the concerted efforts during the annual campaign for the Fund for the Arts. read more…
Lawmakers are roughly a month into this year’s session of the Kentucky General Assembly, which will last 60 working days, and end by at least April 15.
Local lawmakers will be in Owensboro on Saturday to give their take on how the legislature has spent its time so far, and what to expect happen between now and when the legislature adjourns sine die for the year.
They’ll also be ready to listen to what members of the public have to say, and there should be no shortage of comments, given the budget problems Kentucky is facing, the issue of expanding gambling still on the table, texing-while-driving bans, domestic violence protections – plenty to talk about.
The Greater Owensboro Chamber of Commerce is hosting the first of four forums with local legislators, and the action gets under way at 8 a.m. at the Commerce Center at 200 E. Third St.
For more info, contact the Chamber at (270) 926-1860.
A Spanish energy company announced in October that it planned to begin testing a spot in northeastern Daviess County to see if this area could sustain a commercial wind farm.
In this photo taken Sunday, Jan. 31, 2010, wind turbines are seen been used to generate electricity near the small town of Darling situated on the outskirts of Cape Town, South Africa. Across the world renewable energy sources are beening tested, including wind turbines for generating electricity. (AP Photo)
Heartland Wind LLC, a subsidiary of Iberdrola Renewables, filed for a permit to build a meteorological tower near the town of Knottsville to begin two years of study to see if the wind patterns and terrain could support such an alternative energy venture.
Wind power is apparently a growing industry in the U.S., and Jon Hale with The Rural Blog has offered several posts on the issue, including the ongoing controversy in Wisconsin over whether these wind farms are beautiful or bothersome.
Hale points to a recent article in the Green Bay Press-Gazette that shows people near the town Byron, Wisc., divided over the issue.
From Press-Gazette the article -
Hardly anyone around here, it seems, is lacking in a strong opinion about wind farms, whether favorable or critical. Living on the cutting edge of energy policy reform does not lend itself to feelings of ambivalence.
Long after it began operating south of Fond du Lac with more than 80 wind turbines, the Forward Wind Energy Center divides residents as sharply as it did when the project was announced five years ago.
Opponents of the operations insist that wind turbines are jeopardizing people’s health and destroying the area’s peaceful aesthetics. Supporters, meanwhile, remain equally certain that wind energy is liberating the United States from both air pollution and dependence on foreign oil.
As state leaders push mandates for alternative energy sources, the debate that has absorbed neighbors here could soon reach a growing number of town halls. At least 20 other commercial wind farms are being planned or developed in Manitowoc County, Outagamie County and elsewhere.
Such advances, and controversy, are likely a ways off for Daviess County, but given the recent growth in the wind industry and the emphasis at both the state and federal levels, many communities like this one may be faced in the future with the questions about whether to turn to wind turbines for energy.
As Hale noted in an earlier post, the American Wind Energy Association reported that wind-power capacity grew by 39 percent in 2009. That wouldn’t account for the exploration of other geographic areas, like here in Daviess County, to find the ability to expand that capacity in the future. read more…
Republican Rand Paul continues to build support and a following in his campaign to become Kentucky’s next U.S. senator.
Rand Paul, GOP candidate for U.S. Senate (photo from Paul campaign)
Fundraising numbers released yesterday show the Bowling Green ophthamologist with a stronger showing in the last quarter than his chief competitor in the GOP primary, Kentucky Secretary of State Trey Grayson. Paul has been able to tap into national support, with several appearances on Fox News, and an endorsement Monday from former Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin.
But as Louisville attorney John David Dyche notes in his column today in the Courier-Journal, the public has a lot yet to learn about Paul, who walks the line between the GOP and libertarianism and has garnered a lot of support from Tea Party protesters.
Dyche lays out a list of questions that include some good ones – here’s a sample from his column -
• Your father — who is campaigning for you as you did for him — co-sponsored a bill with Massachusetts liberal Democrat Barney Frank to eliminate most federal penalties for marijuana possession for personal use. Do you support such legislation?
• You advocate “term limits as a means of reining in career politicians and pork barrel spending.” Should five-term Senate Republican leader Mitch McConnell be forbidden from a sixth?
• McConnell has used earmarks to bring Kentucky millions of federal dollars. Some — like $38 million for Louisville’s 21st Century Parks — seem outside enumerated congressional powers. Is this “pork barrel spending?” What specific McConnell earmarks would you have opposed?
• Would you have opposed the Medicare prescription drug benefit for budgetary or constitutional reasons? The federal tobacco buy-out?
The primary comes less than four months from now, which leaves the 11 candidates in the U.S. Senate race this year little time to fully explain what they’re for and who they are. Much of the conversation so far has been about who their opponents are or are not.
Hopefully between now and when voters head to the polls in May, these candidates will make their way through Owensboro often to let folks here know what they’re made of.
