Another tweet-slam from Kentucky's proto-Trump

By BERRY CRAIG

AFT Local 1360

Gov. Matt Bevin, Kentucky's proto-Trump, Tweet-slammed the whole Kentucky Democratic Party after a federal grand jury indicted ex-party chair Jerry Lundergan and consultant Dale Emmons for alleged illegalities in the 2014 U.S. Senate campaign of Secretary of State Alison Lundergan Grimes, Lundergan's daughter: 

"Another example of the type of corruption that has been rampant in Kentucky for much of the past 100 years while a single political party had nearly (and at times, entirely) unfettered control of everything... KY voters have thrown them out for a reason." 

Ex-state auditor Adam Edelen picked up the gauntlet: "Hogwash. No individual speaks for the 'Democratic Party,' thus the term 'Democratic.' And for the record, I’ve sent more folks to prison for public corruption than you ever will."

Edelen is hardly a Lundergan-Emmons-Grimes apologist. He and Grimes may battle each other--and Andy Beshear and maybe Rocky Adkins--in next year's Democratic gubernatorial primary.

Meanwhile, Bevin, like Trump, is slumping in the polls and desperate to make political hay off anything. So, they're stepping up the character-assassination-by-Tweet.

The poor governor had to endure the winter of his discontent. Thousands of teachers and their supporters, including union members, converged on the Capitol to protest GOP public pension gutting.

Summer brought more bad news for Bevin. AG Beshear had said the "reform" bill was unconstitutional and sued in court. He won in June.

In July, the latest quarterly Morning Consult tracking poll revealed that 57 percent of Kentuckians don't believe Bevin is doing a good job. (A recent ABC/Washington Post poll put Trump's disapproval rating at 60 percent, a new high.) 

Most GOP lawmakers step smartly to Bevin's drum, which is marked by a decidedly anti-union and anti-teacher beat.

Union members and teachers can't help vote the governor out until next year. But there's every indication that they'll rally at the polls in big numbers against Bevin's allies in the legislature.  

In any event, Edelen is right. Lundergan and Emmons are Democrats, not the Democratic party. 

Too, federal (and state) court indictments are serious business. But indictment and conviction are not synonymous.

Lundergan and Emmons insist they're innocent--and they are under law until proven guilty. No amount of self-serving vitriol, venom and venality from Bevin's Twitter feed will change that. But you can bet he (and Trump) will keep it up.

Tweeted spleen is about all the governor and the president have got left.