McConnell blames Obama because Congress didn’t do its homework

From the Herald-Leader:

McConnell’s admission that he all but tuned out the president years ago makes it even more remarkable that last week McConnell blamed Obama for not adequately alerting Congress to the “potential consequences” of a new law that undermines the principle of sovereign immunity and puts U.S. military and intelligence personnel and diplomats at risk of being retaliated against in foreign courts.

...In his veto message, Obama laid out several reasons for the veto, including creating a precedent that could lead to lawsuits in foreign courts against the U.S. government and straining relations with allies in the Middle East. But lawmakers from both parties overwhelmingly voted to override the president, the first time Congress has overridden an Obama veto — and then almost immediately started voicing regret.

...If you’re wondering why Congress — with expert specialized staff, committees and great resources at its disposal —didn’t do its own research into the ramifications of the new law, well, good question.

Bevin’s ravings in power grab belie oath

From the Herald-Leader:

In December, Gov. Matt Bevin put one hand on a Bible, held up the other and pledged to “faithfully execute to the best of your ability, the office of Governor according to law.”

Bevin’s recent ravings about the Kentucky Supreme Court call into question his ability and commitment to that solemn oath.

...Bevin, elected as a Republican, came out of the Tea Party movement that seeks to limit both the power and size of government. But his actions as governor have seemed aimed not at shrinking government but at consolidating all its power into his own hands.

Ky. Supreme Court: Bevin bound by law

A good editorial from the Herald-Leader:

The Kentucky Supreme Court yesterday delivered a very important message to Gov. Matt Bevin: You don’t make the law, you follow it.

It’s unfortunate that neither Bevin nor Stephen Pitt, his general counsel, understood this before disregarding the budget passed by the General Assembly and cutting university appropriations in the last months of their fiscal year.

...Bevin risks wasting his years in the governor’s office in a series of power grabs that will be turned back in the courts unless he accepts that, as Noble writes, “the governor, like everyone else, is bound by the law.”

Thomas Jefferson would barf at Bevin’s call to bloodshed

From the Herald-Leader:

It was one thing when he was a rich guy from Louisville little known outside Tea Party circles. But now that Matt Bevin is governor of Kentucky, he really should think before he speaks, maybe even jot down a few notes before taking the stage.

Bevin’s attempted clarification on Monday of comments that he made at the Values Voter Summit in Washington on Saturday suggests that he knows that he was off base, irresponsible and verging on unhinged when he declared that bloodshed may be necessary to “redeem” the country if Hillary Clinton is elected president.

...What has kept liberty alive in this country for more than 200 years is the peaceful transfer of power after elections. The idea that violence would be justified by the election of a candidate or platform you disagree with is un-American.

Bevin’s Medicaid plan still needs work

From the Herald-Leader:

Bevin’s plan to move Kentuckians onto employer-provided health insurance is mostly unrealistic because low-wage workers frequently change jobs and their employers often don’t offer insurance. Bevin’s savings would come from covering almost 86,000 fewer people than would otherwise be eligible and by excluding benefits like dental and vision. Taxpayers would pay more per person in the Medicaid expansion for less health care, presumably to pay for new bureaucracy.

Kentucky has paid nothing for the Medicaid expansion but must shoulder a fraction of the cost next year, capping out at 10 percent in 2021. Kentucky pays 30 percent of traditional Medicaid; the federal government pays the rest. Taxpayers and their representatives in Congress see the value of helping a poor state improve its residents’ health. Kentucky’s elected leaders should too. The wider the coverage the more leverage the state has to improve health outcomes and control costs through evidence-based practices.

If Bevin ends the Medicaid expansion and unpaid hospital bills rise and constituents ask lawmakers why they lost their medical care, Kentuckians will know the governor, not someone in Washington, is responsible.

Bevin litigates while U of L drifts

From the Herald-Leader:

The (Bevin) administration has rebuffed entreaties from Franklin Circuit Judge Phillip Shepherd to reach a compromise with Attorney General Andy Beshear resolving uncertainty over the U of L board’s makeup. Bevin last week even urged his U of L appointees to convene in defiance of a court order. “They’ve got work to do, absolutely. Their job is to govern, and that is exactly what I think they should do,” Bevin told WHAS radio.

It’s been almost a month since Shepherd temporarily blocked Bevin’s order abolishing and replacing that board, ruling that the governor’s unprecedented action was at odds with several state laws, the terms of U of L’s accreditation and the constitutional separation of powers.

Bevin’s disregard for separation of powers and due process were also noted when Shepherd reinstated Kentucky Retirement Systems board member Thomas Elliott on Monday. Shepherd took Bevin to task for using “lawless, strong-arm tactics” in threatening — through staff members accompanied by uniformed state police officers — to arrest Elliott if he participated in a board meeting.

Bevin should learn from legal setback

From the Herald-Leader:

Gov. Matt Bevin’s power grabs keep backfiring. A judge last week dismantled Bevin’s rationale for upending the University of Louisville Board of Trustees, which should serve as a wake-up call: If Bevin hopes to accomplish his goals, he will have to stop undermining them by overreaching his authority.

...The judge noted that Bevin had “numerous management tools” at hand to address U of L’s problems, tools that earlier governors used effectively.

Indeed, Kentucky governors have far-reaching power without flouting the law. The administration said it will appeal. But if Bevin wants more than court battles and conflict, he instead should use the tools he already has.

Pension board right to take on Bevin

From the Herald-Leader:

After the session, with a stroke of his executive pen, Bevin abolished the (Kentucky Retirement Systems) board and reformed it to give himself control.

...“The governor has granted himself extraordinary new powers over a board that is supposed to be insulated from political interference,” Jim Carroll, a spokesman for the retirees’ watchdog group, Kentucky Government Retirees, said. The group urged the “legitimate board” to go to court to oppose Bevin’s action.

...Without doubt, it would be better if the $50,000 going to defend Elliott’s place on the board remained in the struggling trust fund to pay retirement benefits. But Bevin picked this fight, leaving KRS management few choices but to turn to the courts to determine who is in charge.

Bevin had no legal grounds for punishing Planned Parenthood

A good editorial from the Herald-Leader:

“Defies reason” is how a circuit judge described the Bevin administration’s claim that Planned Parenthood was illegally providing abortions in Louisville.

In throwing out Bevin’s attempt to punish Planned Parenthood with more than $500,000 in fines, Jefferson Circuit Judge Mitch Perry found that, contrary to the administration’s accusations, Planned Parenthood complied with all applicable laws and regulations. And, the judge said, so did the Cabinet for Health and Family Services when it gave the nonprofit the go-ahead late last year to to open its new abortion clinic.

Only after Republican Matt Bevin became governor did the cabinet withdraw its approval and cite Planned Parenthood for “willfully” violating licensing requirements.

Bevin ignores recent Kentucky history at his own peril

A good editorial from the Herald-Leader:

(Gov. Matt Bevin) should know his executive order giving himself the exclusive power to choose all the ethics commissioners is a really, really bad idea.

...if Bevin wants to deliver an administration that is both ethical and appears to be ethical he can’t get there by grabbing all the power to appoint the arbiters of ethics for himself.

It’s a bad decision, one that ignores Kentucky government’s long, ethically-challenged history.

Bevin overreaches again

From the Herald-Leader:

Other governors figured out how to bring in new boards to give public universities “fresh starts” without raising questions about the legality of their actions.

Not Matt Bevin, who waved his scepter and whisked away the University of Louisville’s board and president, or so it appeared through the fog of intrigue surrounding his Friday morning announcement.

On Friday afternoon, Bevin rewrote the law governing the Kentucky Retirement Systems Board of Trustees, prompting a public retirees group to call on “the legitimate KRS board” to challenge the governor in court.

Bevin elected governor, not absolute ruler

A good editorial from the Herald-Leader:

What’s really troubling about (Gov. Matt Bevin's) convoluted machinations over the panel appointed to nominate people to serve as judges in workers’ compensation cases is an apparent confusion — or lack of concern — about separation of powers among the government’s executive, legislative and judicial branches.

In this case, Bevin rewrote legislation by executive order — taking on legislative duties — then, according to his spokesperson, decided a judge was simply wrong (“would no doubt be reversed on appeal”) in a decision temporarily blocking his changes.

...Bevin’s disregard for the fundamental limits imposed on his power also came into focus in the intimidation tactics his administration used in an attempt to impose control over the Kentucky Retirement Systems Board of Trustees at a May meeting. The attorney general decision this week ruled that the governor’s delegates violated Kentucky Open Meetings law by threatening to arrest one board member and to initiate an investigation of another, if they did not comply with the administration’s wishes.

Rand Paul’s bad chemical reaction

From today's Herald-Leader:

Gee, thanks, Sen. Rand Paul for laying out Kentucky’s welcome mat to chemical companies eager to escape regulation. More pollution and cancer are just what we need.

In a speech Tuesday, Paul declared: “If California inappropriately regulates your chemicals, charge them more and by all means move! We'd love to have your business in Kentucky.”

The occasion was final passage of the first modernization of federal chemical safety laws in 40 years. This quiet triumph of bipartisanship and collaboration between industry and environmentalists left Paul sputtering because chemical makers not only sought but expect to profit from more effective regulation.

Bevin misuses police in pension flap

A good editorial from the Herald-Leader:

Talk about overplaying your hand. Gov. Matt Bevin’s office last week deployed the Kentucky State Police to threaten with arrest the state pension board chairman whom Bevin is trying to oust.

...(Louisville banker Thomas) Elliott told reporters that he was taken into a room by Bevin’s chief of staff Blake Brickman and Personnel Secretary Thomas Stephens and told that troopers were standing by to arrest him if he defied Bevin’s April 20 executive order removing him from the board.

...The dispute over whether the governor has the legal authority to oust Elliott before his term expires arises from conflicting interpretations of state law. Every day courts around Kentucky hear such disputes in civil, not criminal, proceedings. That’s the way this conflict should be resolved, not by misusing the KSP in a tactic worthy of a tin-pot dictator.

McConnell supremely embarrassing

From the Herald-Leader:

The news of Justice Antonin Scalia’s death was barely an hour old when Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell declared that President Barack Obama should not appoint anyone to fill the vacancy on the Supreme Court.

...The Constitution most certainly says nothing about delaying a Supreme Court nomination until after an election. In fact, McConnell voted to confirm Justice Anthony Kennedy in Ronald Reagan’s last year as president. The average time from the nomination of a justice to a final Senate vote is 67 days.

Obama should get on with naming a nominee. McConnell should be embarrassed.

Coal warrior McConnell misleads

A good editorial from the Herald-Leader:

(Mitch) McConnell took to the Senate floor Tuesday to denounce President Barack Obama on the occasion of his final state of the union address. McConnell blamed the president for a collapsing middle class and accused him of waging a “heartless... war on coal families who just want to get ahead.”

...But forces far more powerful than Obama or McConnell — namely, geology and the market — preclude a revival of the coal industry in Eastern Kentucky.

...In 2016, if McConnell really cares about Eastern Kentucky — which, indeed, does “need help” — and if he cares about the people who re-elected him, he should resolve to start telling them the truth about the coal industry’s prospects.