12/16/2006: Now that Rep. Ben Chandler (D-KY)–who would have been a shoo-in for governor next year–has decided not to run (he’ll be a Senator one day), Treasurer Jonathan Miller has thrown his hat into the ring for the Dems.

This will be a welcome alternative to Attorney General Greg Stumbo, who spent millions of tax dollars pursuing a criminal case against a governor, only to drop the charges with prejudice.

Gov. Ernie Fletcher started out with much promise. While the political machinations were heavily against him, he made matters worse by surrounding himself with incompetents and idealogues. Rather than “clean the mess” in Frankfort, he handed us a more right-leaning version of the same mess that he vowed to clean.

In addition, while the hiring scandal was mostly politics, Fletcher’s handling of it speaks volumes to the fact that he doesn’t “get it”. Had he fired the affected staffers immediately, apologized and taken responsibility for the blunders, and promised to go and sin no more, he would have short-circuited Attorney General Stumbo and been able to focus on the important matters of governing.

Instead, Fletcher–in his stubbornness–wasted his political capital by fighting Stumbo–over the course of a year and a half–over something in which he and his people were clearly in the wrong.

On top of that, he resorted to cronyism in his appointments, including one Supreme Court justice. The voters overwhelmingly shot that down a few weeks ago.

Many–not all–of his picks to head agencies were ideaologues whose attitude was, “screw you…we’re in charge now!” Rather than focus on doing great things, many (not all) Republican appointees focused on partisan wrangling that only served to irritate employees. Jim Host was a prominent example of this.

Instead, Fletcher let Host help foist that Louisville arena on the Kentucky taxpayer. We need that like we need hemmorhoid surgery. As a traditional conservative who favors cutting spending, I take umbrage with that arena deal, which was nothing more than vote-buying.

To be fair, not all of Fletcher’s appointees were bad picks. I’ve known a few of them, and they are very smart, articulate, and effective. Unfortunately for Fletcher, those appointees have received little credit.

Government is bigger today than it was four years ago, and continues to grow at an unsustainable pace in spite of us having a Republican governor. Kentuckians–Republican and Democrat alike–should be outraged at this.

We’ll see if Miller can provide an answer to this problem. Right now, it’s his race to lose.