"I believe that we can lower health-care premiums by up to 30 percent", Fletcher wrote on Oct. 29, about a week before winning the 2003 election.

Well, so much for that campaign promise.

Fletcher's administration has hit state employees, including teachers and retirees, with such huge increases in health-care costs that they are threatening a walkout. To deal with the mess, the governor was forced to call lawmakers into a politically unpopular special session last week that is costing taxpayers $50,000 a day.

And what progress was made after the session's first four days? None, basically. No bills filed. No great ideas floated. The only substance was a legislative committee's probe into potential conflicts of interest between members of Fletcher's staff and an insurance company that won a state contract to provide health insurance to state workers.

Seems three members of Fletcher's administration used to work for CHA Health, the company that landed the state contract. Legislators want to know how closely they were involved in drafting Fletcher's state health-care plan.

We were all told by Fletcher in last year's campaign this type of cronyism was over. I know the Republicans are out of practice at holding the governor's mansion, but this is ridiculous.

Fletcher calls a special session then leaves for Europe on an economic development trip. Attracting companies to Kentucky is vital, but shouldn't he have stayed in Frankfort to work on the problem at hand?

Fletcher fills open judicial seats with relatives of Republican lawmakers. Last week Fletcher appointed Robyn Williams, the wife of Senate President David Williams, to a district judgeship in southern Kentucky.

Earlier this year he appointed Julie Reinhardt Ward, the daughter of Republican Rep. Jon David Reinhardt of Campbell County, to a circuit court seat in the county. Her resume, qualifications and experience pale in comparison to the two candidates she is running against, lawyer Steve Franzen and Campbell District Judge Greg Popovich.

But with the governor it's apparently whom, and not what, you know.

Think I'm picking on the governor? Even his own brother is against him.

Harold Fletcher, a Republican, is running for the state Senate seat in Frankfort, home of state government. Last week he joined the protests against his brother's health care plan.

Running for governor, Fletcher has certainly learned, is easier than actually being governor.

E-mail pcrowley@enquirer.com. Crowley interviews Kentucky Secretary of State Trey Grayson this week on ICN6's "On The Record," which is broadcast daily on Insight Communications Channel 6.