It looks like Ernie Fletcher wants to be the John Paul Jones of smearing.
Although Kentucky's Republican governor is running 19 points behind in the latest polling, he's extremely confident about his chances.
Just as John Paul Jones dismissed demands for his surrender by crying "I've not yet begun to fight," Fletcher dismisses the polls with a "we've yet to define our opponent."
In other words, Fletcher has "not yet begun to smear."
The usual formula for Republican candidates is to pile up an enormous amount of money and then spend it on negative ads the last two or three weeks before the election.
Unfortunately for Fletcher, it might not be possible to smear his problems away. Widely perceived as incompetent and corrupt, Fletcher has a lot of smearing to do before the public has as much contempt for Beshear as they have for Fletcher himself.
It will be interesting to see if Fletcher engages in creative smearing or decides to go with the old stand-by's of abortion, school prayer, and pedophilia.
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Fletcher cleaned up the Workers Comp system down there, which was becoming an insurmountable hurdle for business, and was an increasing burden on all levels of government, especially school systems.
Have any of the Republicans pointed out that the Democrats all have skin stretched over their heads yet? I don't think any of them have stooped that low!
B Moe
B Moe - The Left never smears anyone. All of Caric's rants about Sen. Thompson are just revealing facts to us. Smearkreig? Never.
Fletcher would do himself no favors mentioning sexual misconduct of any kind. I'm sure we'll hear endless moralizing about abortion, school prayer, and (even though they made it unconstitutional), gay marriage.
Republicans drag out this same tired old handbook every election season. Sometimes people fall for it, sometimes people see through it.
Fletcher's other problem is that there's no way in hell he can run on his record. He'd have to be out of his mind.
So it will be the same tolderance repudiating, gay bashing, medicaid cutting, union busting, education cutting rhetoric packaged as "personal reponsibility" and "morality". Same old song with one new line; he wants to keep giving up Kentucky revenue to Ohio and Indiana by keeping gambling illegal.
Fletcher cleaned up the Workers Comp system down there, which was becoming an insurmountable hurdle for business, and was an increasing burden on all levels of government, especially school systems
Reliably, JD steps in with the plutocrat prospective. So, Professor Caric, Fletcher helped gut workers rights? We have none here in Indiana. It takes some getting used to.
It's sad when an insurance company has to pay on its policies. it's good to know the poor little insurance company can go buy a governor to "fix" the problem.
I know it's an aside, but it still needed to be said.
timb - I am just going to assume that you know not next to nothing, but absolutely nothing about the state of their W/C system prior to the changes.
Gutted workers rights? Where did I say that? It is still one of the most liberal systems in the country. Gov. Fletcher just changed the playing field from extremely slanted to moderately slanted.
Well, buy a better governor, JD. If you couldn't slant the field back to your side enough, then you're gonna need some free lunches and trips to "gentleman's clubs."
Not that you're a lobbyist, so you wouldn't personally being doing it.
As to you earlier point, I took you at your very biased word. Having a position is not something to be ashamed of, JD; but it's unlikely you and I would agree on social justice issues.
Nobody bought a Governor. He beat somebody at the polls. So, basically, you took a knee jerk position having no knowledge of the subject whatsoever? Contrarian to the core, I see.
I stand by your "reform" equalling my "gutting". The fact that you still don't like it means you need to tell the folks at the trade association to find a more capable toady.
Maybe someday every State can have the nightmare of lack of worker and consumer protections we have in Indiana!
So, explain how workers rights were gutted in KY for all of us timmy. Enlighten us. Show us how a 1% PPI rating for a worker with an FCE that shows submaximal effort and a neuropsych evaluation that shows significant symptom maginification should entitle the worker to Permanent Total Disability based on the worker's subjective evaluation of their condition.
Sometimes you are fun to discuss things with. On this, you are blowing shite out of your ass.
Actually, I think it was Paul Patton who gutted the Workman's Comp in Kentucky. He was a Democrat who owned a coal company. From what I understand, it's now almost impossible to get disability now.
JD, do you think I don't what those words mean? Functional Capacity Exam, Neuropsyche, etc. I worked for over a decade in a government office determining medical disability claims. Bad cases makes bad examples. All I can say is that one percent of a permanent impairment sounds like a permanent condition to me.
Amazing what you can learn from someone when you ask them, isn't it. I would bet I learned more medicine and functional capacity bs in my decade, then you did in the JAG. But, that's just me guessing.
timb - I was not in the JAG, you little shit. You have yet to guess right, so maybe you ought to try a new tact.
Congrats, you understand the terms. Putting them to use does not appear to be your forte. Maybe it is best that you chose another career. That was not a "bad case" example, it was a routine example.
1% PPI should make somebody a permanent total? Really? Why? Why bother at all with a PPI rating? Why not just say any rating makes the person a perm total? In effect, that was the way KY W/C law operated prior to the reforms.
Cursing, JD? It's quite unbecoming.
I guess we're even on the bad bets (you thought I didn't know what I was talking about re: medical claims 0 for 1. I assumed you were important when you were in the military. 0 for 1 for me.
Hey, by the way, guess what Michael Savage was talking about last night? Hint: Haditha, John Murtha's a bastard, and Jimmy Carter is the worst President ever. Have we ever seen Goldstein and Savage in the same room?
I doing a little victory jig right now, because my analogy was so dead on. Damn, I'm bad about guessing about your biography, good about guessing where your kooky political beliefs fit into the broad spectrum (it's the amateur political scientist in me), and still torn over wanting to flatter you until I get to see that home theater!
Oh, well, wonder if I surf over to Savage's webpage it will match Goldstein's? I bet it comes close.
I could not care less what Michael Savage was discussing. Murtha already convicted the Marines, so unless he is apologizing to them, I could not care less what he has to say.
I was an Arabic translator, an Arabic Cryptological Linguist, to be specific.
You do not even know my belefs, much less where to put them into the continuum of political thought.
beliefs, but you knew what I was getting at.
I forgot you knew how to speak Arabic. Did they teach that in the Army or did you know that before? In any event, if I hadn't mentioned it, that is impressive, as reading a different direction has always sounded difficult to me.
As for the continuum, I think you and I know enough about each other to sketch a general place where the other belongs.
By the way, I will not pretend to lecture on Haditha, since I know you don't care, but let me just tell you, if you think Pablo or Jeff has told anything close to correct, then you are mistaken.
What you need to remember is that women and children were killed, the bodies were buried and the higher ups hid the truth...until they couldn't. As I suspect you know, Muslims do not re-inter their dead. So, dropping charges by Lt Gen mattis, who is an embarrassment in my opinion, just means they couldn't prove they murdered those people.
All we know is that our Marines killed women and children (15 of them), some of them as young as four. I'm sorry you hate Murtha for being against the war, but try to focus where the injustice here lies and it's not with Murtha or Marines; it's with the dead kids.
I have rather strong feelings about Rules of Engagement and dead children. You'll have to forgive me for caring.
I learned it at the Defense Language Institute while in service.
Caring is no problem. It is the assessment of blame. I am not mad at Murtha because he is anti-war. I am mad at him because he has seen combat, and was still willing to condemn the Marines based only on the reporting. So far, more people have had the charges dropped, and the one that has been given immunity, gave fairly horrible testimony for the prosecution.
We are fighting an enemy that uses our respect of the law and the ROE against us. You caring and anger should be directed at the terrorists who hide amongst civilians while firing upon our troops, who intentionally target civilians to sway public opinion, and have no regard for the lives of men, women, or children.
Given the choice between blaming the terrorists or the Marines, it is troubling that so many will predictably blame the Marines.
I know we disagree on a great many things, but I don't have to state I don't like the insurgents. Has it come that far, that the PW crowd assumes Americans root against their own people? Guess where my cousin was stationed in 11/05? He was with the compnay which replaced Kilo. So, add up my concern for him and my belief that killing children (legally or not) did not make Haditha safe for him with my hatred for bullies and war atrocities and you have a pretty potent cocktail of rage.
Fortunately, for me, they were basically confined to the dam.
JD, you should never doubt that I think we're better than the people were fighting. They DO kill children. They do kill civilians. I think, if we took a trip there, you would be shocked at the number o Iraqis who don't see the difference between intentionally killing children and doing it recklessly and sending a check later.
As far as blame, they did kill those kids and those women. WIf they did within the ROE's, then it's up to a brave John Kerry-type to discuss it later and it's the fault of their officers. If they did it outside of the ROE's, then they deserve prison.
No, it is not the fault of the Officers. You just do not get it. It is the fault of the terrorists for using civilians as cover, for waging war from homes, schools, and mosques. Period.
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