Sunday, March 14, 1999
Fiscal court lacks spine on jail
Shipping inmates 100 miles absurd
BY PATRICK CROWLEY
The Cincinnati Enquirer
Did we hear this right? Kenton County doesn't build its own jail because every time a site is proposed, residents living nearby squawk and hold their breath until the fiscal court says uncle.
Instead, the county would take prisoners to a jail 100 miles away in Lewis County.
Yeah, boy, there's an idea. At least the AA Highway, the route one takes when transporting cons east to Lewis County, will be a lot safer now, what with all those Kenton County Sheriff's cars constantly on it.
Hey, here's a better plan. Have the county buy a space shuttle and then rent some room on the Mir space station. Unless there's a Kenton County voting precinct on Neptune, the fiscal court won't have to worry about angering any registered voters, which more and more seems to be the motivation in picking and then dumping one jail site after another.
So what if it's a waste of taxpayers' dollars and law enforcement officers' time, as well as an absolute logistical nightmare? The fiscal court has well-heeled suburban voters to appease. They can't be bothered with all this logic and sense.
As absurd as the Lewis County idea sounds, it appears to have some legs. On Thursday, Jailer Terry Carl, Chief Deputy Jailer Bill Schilling — who is pushing the Lewis County plan — and Kelly White, U.S. Sen. Mitch McConnell's Northern Kentucky aide, huddled at the jail to discuss the proposal.
Mr. McConnell has been involved, as well as U.S. Jim Bunning's office, because they could use their influence to steer some federal dough to Lewis County, a big Republican County and the only GOP stronghold in the eastern half of the 4th District.
Lewis County wants a prison for the jobs it would bring. It's not exactly clear how Kenton County got involved, but the idea has been floating around the courthouse for several weeks now.
How's this for a revolutionary idea? Somebody should show some leadership on the fiscal court.
Pick a site, make your case to the residents, take the heat, cast the vote and build it.
The county is getting lots of heat from residents in Edgewood, who don't want the jail near their city at a site on 3L Highway at Interstate 275.
If that's the best site, the county should just move on it and take the political consequences. If it's not, find a site that is and get cracking.
Politics, government and leadership is all about making the tough choice. It's not about looking for excuses or promoting ideas that seem destined to bomb for the sake of covering one's political rear end.
Cetrulo taking sides: Don't look for anti-abortion leader Robert C. Cetrulo to join a lot of the Northern Kentucky Republican establishment leaping on the presidential bandwagons of Texas Gov. George W. “I'm Not My Daddy” Bush or Elizabeth “Bob, Take Your Viagra” Dole.
Mr. Cetrulo, the Covington lawyer and president of Northern Kentucky Right to Life, says Mrs. Dole “is horrible,” while Mr. Bush “is a weak stepsister like his father, who appointed pro-aborts on the (Supreme Court) bench and seduced the pro-life vote.”
There's more. Of course, with Mr. Cetrulo, there always is.
Mr. Bush and his big-tent philosophy of inviting people into the Republican Party who believe in abortion in cases of rape, incest and life of the mother is analogous to political coalition-building in Nazi Germany, Mr. Cetrulo said.
German political leaders in the '30s said “we're not in favor of killing Jews, but we need to accept ... Gestapo types into the party,” Mr. Cetrulo said.
“(Mrs.) Dole is the wife of a failed candidate who ran a miserable race and was a loser from the beginning,” he said.
Republicans such as state GOP vice chairman Damon Thayer, who likes Mr. Bush, and former party leader and one-time congressional candidate Rick Robinson, a fan of Mrs. Dole, must be shuddering at those comments.
Picture a nice fall day next year when Mr. Bush or Mrs. Dole could be the GOP nominee, and they stop in Republican-heavy Northern Kentucky for a quick campaign swing.
There's the group of giddy Republicans clapping at all the right moments. There's a smaller group of privileged donors who paid $1,000 or so to have their pictures snapped with the smiling candidate. There are the media, sneered at by the crowd and accused of being liberal.
There's Mr. Cetrulo, waving a sign of an aborted fetus and making the event's organizers about as proud of their local front-man on abortion as the Unabomber's parents are of little Teddy.
That's what Mr. Cetrulo did three years ago, as Mrs. Dole campaigned in Covington for her husband. And you just know he'll do it again.
So who does he like in the race? Plenty of folks, it turns out.
Newport native Gary Bauer. Conservative commentators Pat Buchanan and Alan Keyes. New Hampshire Sen. Bob Smith.
All have strong, unwavering opposition to abortion. And all have little chance of winning the GOP presidential nomination.
Or to put it in terms you NCAA tournament-watchers can understand, Mr. Cetrulo's picks are the Winthrop, Valparaiso, Samford and Alcorn State of the Republican primary field. They likely won't survive the first round — in this case, the first big group of primaries next March.
The lack of what Mr. Cetrulo sees as a strong anti-abortion Republican candidate is leading him, as well as some leading national social conservatives such as talk radio host and author Dr. James Dobson, to call for the formation of a new political party.
“I think people are ready to walk” from the GOP, Mr. Cetrulo said.
Bauer's local connection: Former Republican state Sen. Gex “Jay” Williams, late of the Kentucky state Senate and now running his computer consulting businesses out of a Florence office, is going to help Mr. Bauer in his presidential bid.
Mr. Bauer, a social conservative seeking the Republican nomination, helped Mr. Williams in last year's U.S. House primary, raising money and campaigning.
“I'd like to return the favor,” said Mr. Williams.
“And how often does somebody who grew up in Newport and graduated from Newport High School run for president?”
Patrick Crowley covers Kentucky politics for The Kentucky Enquirer. His column appears Thursdays and Sundays. He can be reached at 578-5581; or (502) 875-7526 in Frankfort; or by e-mail at crowleys@cinci.infi.net
CROWLEY ARCHIVE
