Governor Issues Pardons Prior to Grand Jury Appearance, page 1

Kentucky Governor Ernie Fletcher gave current and former members of his administration blanket pardons Monday, a day prior to his scheduled appearance before a grand jury to answer questions about hiring practices.

www.kentucky.com
To err is human; to pardon, ill advised

By Larry Dale Keeling

HERALD-LEADER COLUMNIST

FRANKFORT - Conventional wisdom in this town works along the lines of a self-fulfilling prophecy. Someone you know passes along a tidbit of gossip. Intrigued by it, you ask a third party, whose knowledge and judgment you trust, whether he has heard anything about the rumor.

This person may have heard nothing; but he, too, starts asking others. Tomorrow or the next day, the gossip comes back to you from entirely new sources.

Suddenly, conventional wisdom has been born.

So, when I say that the most recent conventional wisdom making the Frankfort rounds is that mass gubernatorial pardons in the BlackBerry Jam scandal have moved from a question of "if" to a matter of "when," you can apply however many grains of salt you prefer.

I tend to take this chatter seriously because the issuance of pre-emptive pardons is the most certain option Gov. Ernie Fletcher has for helping current and former members of his administration avoid possible criminal convictions in this investigation of the administration's hiring practices.

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The good ol' boy network sure got itself in a fix this time around. Hard to hide what's been going on down there, even with blanket pardons. I don't think the Gov. has a big enough blanket to cover this one up.

[edit on 27-9-2005 by DJDOHBOY]