A whole bunch of people on Republican Kentucky Governor Ernie Fletcher's staff were implicated in a major hiring scandal, centered around violations of the state's merit-based employment laws. Several were even indicted.

Fletcher decided to do the upstanding thing in response: He pardoned everyone involved, declaring that the state Attorney General's investigation was "politically motivated."

Despite the pardons, the AG (Greg Stumbo) has kept up with his investigation. E-mails filed with court documents to get a search warrant for the office of Fletcher's chief-of-staff indicate that it might go as high as Fletcher himself.

With the walls closing in around him, Fletcher belatedly announced he was firing nine staffers. Fletcher also called for the head of the state Republican party, one Darrell Brock, to resign.

BIG NEWS!!

Today, the Kentucky Republican Party delivered a major "fuck you" to Ernie Fletcher: They refused to ask for Brock's resignation. That's pretty astounding, for a state party to utterly ignore the wishes of its governor.

Fletcher, as of July, had a 34-57 approval rating - good enough for 48th-best out of all fifty governors.

from Daily Kos