Let's Be Corrupt

In a year where political corruption has formed a more important political theme than any election since 1974, it takes a good deal of doing to stand out from the crowd. But Kentucky governor Ernie Fletcher is trying as hard as he can.

Fletcher, a Republican, was elected in 2003 on a promise to" clean up the mess in Frankfort." And a mess it was--his Democratic predecessor, Paul Patton, had ended his term in disgrace after revelations of having ordered state audits of a nursing home owned by his former mistress, audits began only after the affair turned sour. Fletcher, however, might be making Bluegrass State residents long for the good old days.

Fletcher is probably best known nationally for a couple of bizarre events. In traveling to Ronald Reagan's funeral in 2004, rather than fly commercial to Washington, he insisted on taking a private plane--which the strayed into unauthorized air space, forced an evactuation of the Capitol, and was almost shot down. More recently, he attracted criticism for signing an $11 million appropriation to create a pharmacy school at the University of the Cumberlands, despite the fact that the school could never receive national accreditation. (The university forbids gay and lesbian students from attending, and had, just before the governor's act, expelled a student it discovered to be gay.)

At home, though, he's been best known for a scandal called the"Governor's Personnel Initiative," in which candidates for civil service jobs allegedly were aggressively screened for pro-GOP sympathies before being hired--despite Kentucky state law that explicitly forbade such activities. When nine of his aides were indicted, Fletcher pardoned them--claiming that he was protecting them from a partisan witch-hunt. (Critics suggested he was really protecting himself.) Now Fletcher himself has been indicted in the scandal. He claims he will still run for re-election in 2007, but in an ominous sign, the state's two senior Republicans, Senators Mitch McConnell and Jim Bunning, declined to comment on the indictments.

At least Fletcher can be sure he won't be the Kentucky governor indicted for the most serious crime. That honor falls to Republican William Sylvester Taylor, who was charged in 1900 as an accessory to the murder of his Democratic rival, William Goebel. Taylor fled to Indiana, and was later pardoned.