Former Drug Dealer Quits Thompson's Campaign »
Fletcher's Newest Try: A Ten Commandments Display, One Day Before Election
One day before the gubernatorial election in Kentucky, incumbent Republican Ernie Fletcher is bringing out yet another attempt to revive his sunken poll numbers — he's putting up a display containing the Ten Commandments in the state Capitol Rotunda.
The display itself is apparently constitutional, as it also contains copies of the Magna Carta, the Mayflower Compact, and other artifacts of American and Western legal history — and it was donated by a private citizen, not paid for by the government. But the timing is certainly suspect, given the Kentucky GOP's values-based push against Democratic nominee Steve Beshear, who is way ahead in the polls.
"The 'Foundations' display contains a variety of historically significant documents which are meant to educate our citizens about the foundations of our law and government," Fletcher said in a statement.
Honestly, "gays=bad" and "look, important Western documents!" is the best he can do? This is why his poll numbers are in the shitter. Although I'm glad it included, of all things, the Mayflower Compact.
November 5, 2007 2:25 PM | Reply | Permalink
Honestly, I can't feel all that sorry for Ernie Fletcher, even though I am a Republican. He just doesn't inspire confidence. It's not really that he's a Republican, as I don't think that's such a drag on him. After all, Bobby Jindal and Haley Barbour are doing well. It's just that it seems Ernie Fletcher is really a 'Fletch' and has sleazed up his opportunities. I don't wish defeat on him, but it seems he's brought it on himself.
November 5, 2007 2:31 PM | Reply | Permalink
This dude is seriously pathetic. I can't wait until he takes his well-deserved beating tomorrow.
November 5, 2007 2:32 PM | Reply | Permalink
If the 'display' is not in Hebrew, Fletcher should be required to shove the whole thing up his rectum.
Paulian Rapturites have a real tendancy to mistranslate the Ten Statements . . .
If the first Statement does not read:
I am the Lord, your God, WHO LEAD YOU OUT OF EGYPT TO BE YOUR GOD, before me you shall hold no other.
I vote that Fletcher also be forced a sign that reads "Illiterate by choice. Please pity me."
November 5, 2007 2:45 PM | Reply | Permalink
I'm with the rectum treatment option. This is scummy beyond belief. It is certainly a violation of the 1st Amendment. Someone should get to that display and determine if it contains items from Indian spiritual traditions, since those are the ACTUAL FOUNDATIONS of the continental institutions.
November 5, 2007 3:03 PM | Reply | Permalink
Over and over again, Ernie committed the unforgivable sin for a politician in Kentucky--he repeatedly embarassed Kentuckians in the national news. From the smileyface license plate to causing fighers to scramble when he flew into the restricted airspace over D.C. without a transponder, to his mortifying hypocricy during the corruption probes, he just kept making Kentuckians look like backward hayseeds. (Or, at least made them feel like that's how others would see them.)
Btw, I love it when politicians hold up the Ten Commandments as the foundational cornerstone of our secular laws. Besides being objectively untrue as an historical matter, it also kind of ignores the fact that only three out of ten are actually illegal.
November 5, 2007 3:43 PM | Reply | Permalink
Seriously, Eric, check out BlueGrassRoots for the details on Ernie's last-second slime-fest: anonymous and thus illegal robo-calls falsely claiming to be from the "homosexual lobby" urging people to vote for Beshear because he's going to hire homosexual teachers.
This one's going to land Ernie in prison.
November 5, 2007 8:03 PM | Reply | Permalink
Gross. Desperation smells. Fletcher is going to take a beating today. :)
November 6, 2007 10:48 AM | Reply | Permalink