By Mike Slaton
When preparing a story, writers usually look for a “hook,” an interesting link or metaphor to capture their readers’ interest. Unfortunately, there are no hooks in “noodling.” A type of hand fishing, noodling is the process of reaching into the holes where catfish lie protecting their spawn, and pulling the fish out by the jaw. An unsportingly easy way to catch a large catfish, noodling has severe repercussions for the fish population, eliminating healthy, adult specimens and leaving the spawn and fry at the mercy of the harsh world.
Republican Gov. Ernie Fletcher has compared the allegations that his administration systematically fired Democrats and hired Republicans, in violation of merit law, to “conspiring to commit noodling out of season.” He then pardoned everyone involved. The Governor’s analogy might have been correct — perhaps merit system violations are small in scope — but his actions were entirely inexcusable.
Firing a state employee — and we’re talking about highway workers here, not cabinet officials — solely on the grounds of their political affiliation is roughly the same as ripping a catfish away from the offspring it is protecting.
Removing the food from a family’s table is just as bad as removing the protection from a catfish fry. It’s even worse if, like me, you value the life and livelihood of a human more than that of a catfish.
In the governor’s defense, no Democrats were skinned and eaten in the making of these indictments. However, Gov. Fletcher’s error is simple: it doesn’t matter that nobody got killed, and it doesn’t matter that Democrats have done it, too. The present administration conspired to break the law, then broke the law, and ultimately covered it up. Whatever his estimation of the crime, Fletcher cannot deny that he committed it.
By pardoning the accused, Fletcher has done this state a disservice. It’s not as if those indicted were facing the death penalty. The worst fate these noodlers probably had in store was the equivalent of revoking their fishing licenses: a five-year ban on state employment. True, jail time was a possibility — but when was the last time you saw the treasurer of a state party do hard time? The important thing is finding out the truth and fixing the problem, not seeing Dick Murgatroyd in stripes.
Sadly, we missed our chance. With a Republican governor and a Democratic attorney-general, we had a unique chance to clean up Frankfort. The governor blew it, and we all suffer the effects of the politics-as-usual that Fletcher promised to correct. When it comes to policy, some of us complain that Democrats are trying to out-Republican the Republicans, but when it comes to corruption, inefficiency and wasted opportunity, the Republicans are proving that they can out-Democrat the Democrats any day of the week.
In any case, we’ll know who to blame when noodling drives the catfish — and the voters — to extinction.
Mike Slaton is a guest columnist for The Louisville Cardinal. E-mail him at:mhslat01@louisville.edu
