Redstate

....I don't like to see Republicans lose, but Fletcher seems like he was a trainwreck in Kentucky. Why oh why couldn't Ann Northup defeat him in the primary?

“.....women and minorities hardest hit”

I attended Anne Northup's first campaign speech in the primary campaign. She didn't seem to have her act together then and it just got worse as the race went along.

Northup and a third candidate combined to lose to Ernie by 317 votes in that primary. The nastiness of the primary campaign ended Governor Fletcher's chances for the fall in a majority Democratic state.

The third candidate self-financed more than $5 million in the race. Unfortunately, he spent too much of it on some really terrible advice from Dick Morris. Otherwise, Northup might have come in third in the primary.

The wind was as the Democrats' backs this year.

fletcher was swiftboated by the A.G. and the fish rap in louisville. "don't piss down my back and tell me it's rainin'" s

Ernie Fletcher was too good for Kentucky. He earned a medical degree and an engineering degree from the University of Kentucky. He was an ordained minister and a pilot in the Air Force. He had no idea how vicious and dishonest Kentuky politics can be. The Attorney General took issues that would have been handled by the Personnel Board in a Democratic administration and sent them to a grand jury.All charges were misdemeanors and were used by the Attorney General,who has some serious ethics problems himself,so the Democrats could discredit Fletcher and regain their power.The new Governor-elect had some conflict of intersts problems, but the court records were sealed by a judge who later worked in Beshear's campaign.The situation played out as usual in this heavily Democratic state. It will be interesting to see if the Herald Leader,the newspaper that hounded Fletcher for just breathing, says anything when the Democats fire all the Republicans and replace them with Democrats.

Anne Northup should never have challenged a sitting Governor of a minority party. It was a ludicrous decision.She set the party back 100 years.

Corrections to my previous post:

I should have stated that it was my opinion that the Attorney General decided to handle issues that would have been dealt with by the Personnel Board in a Democratic administration.I did not research the personnel policies to detemine the veracity of that statement; I should have done so before submitting my post. It was my opinion that political motivations seem to be the primary reasons for the entire episode. Maybe I did not possess all the facts. Furthermore, I am not absolutely sure that the same judge who sealed the records that might have indicated a possible conflict of interest concerning the Kentucky Central Insurance Company and the newly elected Governor legal work for that company was the same judge who worked in the new Governor's campaign. When I wrote the post,I thought this was accurate,but I haven't been able to substantiate my statement.

My purpose for commenting was to say that Ernie Fletcher was a good man who served Kentucky well.Being human, he did make some mistakes.I don't think the mistakes were serious enough to warrant his defeat.