STEVE HENRY AND JIM KING: HAVE WE HAD ENOUGH YET?

What a Christmas present huh? We get to see just why campaign finance reform is so necessary by two of the most arrogant ego driven politicians in the game. After a couple of years of yawning by most of the media over the Steve Henry nightmare we finally have reached some sort of Justice (if one can call it that).

Thanks in large part to the efforts of Jake Payne over at http://www.pageonekentucky.com/ the Steve Henry case did not die and fade away resulting in a misdemeanor Alford plea agreement by Henry that basically gives him a $500 fine. This is appallling to most of us to say the least but is just the beginning as the Federal case is still progressing. Again, thank Jake who has kept this alive.

Of course Henry also now has 12 months on the shelf conditionally discharged after 2 years and I would assume he could not ever get elected for even dog catcher from this point forward. The sad thing is that nothing prevents him from running for office again. Yet.

Sounds like a first time drug offender sentence not a habitual law breaker sentence doesn't it?

It was also amusing to see Henry compare his predicament to the Captain going down with the ship. Yeah Steve you are a hero for taking the fall for your own personal mistakes. Talk about arrogance and ego.

The FOX41 video with Chris Turner is the first one below for your review. I love the quote by Jake in the story:

"Innocent people don't accept Alford pleas. They don't forfeit 600 grand. They don't pay fines to the Kentucky Registry of Election Finance. And they most certainly don't continually blame others for their mistakes," Payne said.

We actually agree on this statement. This also brings us to the Jim King case.

FOX41's Bill Alexander has been one of the few that have been following this case. He did a report last night on the decision by the Special Prosecutor in the King case, Hart Megibben, to forward the case to the Kentucky State Police Special Investigations Unit for criminal investigation. You don't do this unless you have probable cause to believe criminal intent in most cases.

The second video below is that story. My apologies for the quality. Last night at 11:00 the video story was on FOX41, which is normal for the top story for all TV news outlets, but this morning it mysteriously disappeared with the station opting for the print version to stay online instead. Some would cry censorship you be the Judge. You have to love having DVR with Insight and a video camera that will download to your computer or we would not see it. Or at least friends who think of that option. FOX fair and balanced?

I wonder if General Manager, and Jim King friend, Bill Lamb had anything to do with that decision.

But I digress.

While I have been criticized and accused of political posturing for the Mayor's race (a race I am not even running in) by King, his attorneys, and some bloggers, fueled by media speculation that I may run in the Mayoral election, nothing could be further from the truth. In fact I disavowed that rumor long ago.

Which brings me back to this.

Innocent people don't pay fines to the Kentucky Registry of Election Finance.

King is in the conciliation stage of deciding how large that fine should be since he was found guilty by the KREF. He is also being investigated by the Kentucky State Police for criminality. Based on that statement is he innocent?

Innocent people don't continually blame others for their mistakes.

King has continually blamed his attorney's saying they gave him permission. Of course attorney Sheryl Snyder denied that during a WLKY news report by Andy Alcock. He continually blames the KREF for something he knew better than to do after manipulating an email. Of course this email was written by King a month AFTER the KREF had told his attorney's he could not. Innocent?

There are 2 glaring things throughout that bug me.

One both are Democrats. This seems to be a pattern of behavior within the party and one reason I left the Democratic Party. While there are crooks on both sides admittedly the Democratic Party of today more exemplifies everything that is wrong with campaign finance as they have had majority control to make the rules better and have chosen not to.

Secondly, there is a serious need for campaign finance reform that, once again, the Democratic Party has been in control long enough to fix but have chosen not to.

So the question remains, have we had enough yet?