Thayer's wrecking ball takes out bill

From today's Courier-Journal:

At issue [is] House Bill 70, a measure long sought by Rep. Jesse Crenshaw, a Lexington Democrat, to automatically restore voting rights to most felons who have served their sentences. It excludes those convicted of intentional murder or serious sex crimes.

...HB 70, which would bring Kentucky in line with most other states, would have to be approved by voters as a constitutional amendment.

But Sen. Damon Thayer, of Georgetown, the majority floor leader for Senate Republicans, eviscerated what represents a decade of work by Mr. Crenshaw, replacing it with a version that would set Kentucky back even farther when it comes to restoring voting rights of ex-offenders.

Concealed guns v. dating violence?

Today's Courier-Journal calls out NKY's own Joe Fischer for sabotaging a bill which would protect people from dating violence:

The House dating violence measure, House Bill 8, has the support of House Judiciary Committee Chairman John Tilley, a Hopkinsville Democrat, and has been voted out by his committee. But it has been sabotaged by Rep. Joe Fischer, a Republican from Fort Thomas who has filed two amendments to it aimed at radically restricting abortion.

This likely will kill the bill, which Rep. Fischer well knows, having engaged in similar guerrilla tactics in past years in a failed effort to advance his abortion bills.

But, like some of his Senate colleagues, Mr. Fischer doesn’t seem too concerned about lives of people threatened by dating violence.

Who needs oversight?

An editorial in today's Courier-Journal:

On a near party-line vote, the (state Senate) members passed Senate Bill 58, which would ask voters to get rid of the office charged with balancing the books, writing checks and providing independent oversight of state finances, The Courier-Journal’s Sebastian Kitchen reported Wednesday.

State Sen. Chris McDaniel, a Republican from Taylor Mill, explained glibly that the treasurer’s duties could be shifted to the Finance and Administration Cabinet. Not so fast, even if that’s possible.

The elected state treasurer is independent and more equipped to provide the oversight state government demonstrates it needs on a regular basis. The finance secretary, appointed by the governor, is less so. Plus, as Kentucky Treasurer Todd Hollenbach, a Democrat, pointed out, his office generates millions more through its unclaimed property efforts than the state spends for the office’s $3.1 million budget.

McConnell's fuming over fish a little off the hook

A good editorial in today's Herald-Leader:

Seriously, can't Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell rail against what he calls "the radical environmentalists in the Obama administration" without insulting everyone's intelligence?

..."The absurdity of the Obama administration's posture on this issue is manifest,'' huffed McConnell. "First, the administration is protecting a fish from water. Let me repeat that: the radical environmentalists in the Obama administration don't want this fish to be exposed to too much water. What's next? Protecting birds from too much sky?"

Surely, McConnell understands that different fish require different sorts of habitats — just as birds cannot survive on sky alone.