KyKurmudgeon

A day late

My midweek column, which normally would be in Wednesday's paper, will be published Thursday since the H-L's Wednesday oped page was devoted to Gov. Steve Beshear's budget address.

Happy Ho-Ho!

I'm outta here until Jan. 2, and it would have to be something very important to rouse me from my long winter's nap.

In memory of Todd Duvall

At Wednesday evening's visitation for Todd Duvall, Ellen Hellard, a longtime friend of his,  asked other friends for brief descriptions of him that she could use while speaking at his funeral Thursday. The first word that came to my mind was "curmudgeon." (I think of The State Journal's late editorial page editor as the original Kentucky curmudgeon. I just borrowed the title when I started this blog.) After thinking a few moments, I also told Ellen that I thought of Todd as a passionate crusader.

It was only later that another description came to mind. Todd was a man of spirits. We had that in common, too. We both liked our toddies, particularly when we combined them with the company of friends and pleasant conversation.

So, to all of Todd's friends who read this post, please raise a glass to his memory.

CHEERS!

Midweek column

My midweek column, which normally appears on Wednesday (when I write one), will be delayed until Thursday this week to give me a chance to digest the election results.

If you haven't done so already, please go vote for the candidate of your choice.

Commandments, Pence and good advice

1. I believe it's safe to conclude that the copy of the Ten Commandments now on display with other historical documents in the state Capitol's Rotunda was not put there with religion in mind. It was purely an act of political desperation on the part of an incumbent governor who trails badly in the polls one day before the election. Of course, if Gov. Ernie Fletcher had spent more time following the Ten Commandments during his four-year term, his prospects for re-election might not look so bleak now.

2. Ran into Lt. Gov. Steve Pence outside the Capitol this afternoon. He told me he and his wife, Ruth Ann Cox, will be joining the Louisville offices of the Dinsmore & Shohl law firm. She will start Dec. 1, and he will join her there Dec. 11. That's the date of the gubernatorial inauguration.

3. Thanks to the reader who sent me an e-mail saying his Wellness Center calendar says this for tomorrow:

"People who stay home (don't vote) on election day because they don't want to have anything to do with crooked politics have a lot more to do with crooked politics than they think."

There's considerable wisdom in that thought.

SOX ROCK!!!!

Zero for my first 56 years; two four-game sweeps of the World Series in my last four years. As a long-suffering fan of the Boston Red Sox, I'm so thrilled I can't write anything negative about anyone today. I'm sure I'll get over that and return to being an opinionated SOB. Today, though, I'm enjoying the glow.

Ethics, malpractice and other quickies

1. Today's opinion from the Legislative Ethics Commission reversing a 1995 opinion represents a welcome return to reason in regard to legislators soliciting lobbyists for political contributions. While the ethics law passed in 1993 clearly prohibits lawmakers from asking lobbyists to contribute to their own political campaigns, the 1995 opinion said they were free to ask lobbyists to contribute to political parties. That interpretation of the law made no sense when it was issued, and it made even less sense after the commission said in 2005 that legislators could not hit up lobbyists on behalf of legislative caucus campaign committees. Why should lawmakers be able to do something to help their parties that they can't do to help their own campaigns or their caucus committees? It's good to see the ethics panel correct the mistake made in 1995.

2. Gov. Ernie Fletcher's compromise proposal on medical malpractice lawsuits sounds a whole lot like the alternative legislative Democrats have been offering in recent years to Senate Republicans' proposed constitutional amendment that would allow limits on damage awards in such suits. Fletcher has supported caps on damages in the past. While I must say this flip-flop puts Fletcher on the right side (the victims' side) of this issue, it's still a flip-flop.

3. Latest SurveyUSA numbers have Fletcher trailing Democratic gubernatorial candidate Steve Beshear by 20 percentage points. If this were a game from the early days of Monday Night Football, Don Meredith might be getting ready to sing us a song.

4. Lexington's leaders appear to have come down with a case of arena envy now that Louisville is getting a big new facility downtown.

GO SOX!!!!!!!

Make it twice in my lifetime.

Time for some time off

After today, I'm outta here until Oct. 15. If the Kentucky Central stuff proves exciting, I may post from home after I get back from a weekend golf trip.

Isn't that title taken?

State Rep. Bill Farmer, R-Lexington, has prefiled a bill that would designate "cornhole" as the official state game. That prompted one wag to wonder if that title didn't already belong to "noodling out of season."