Earlier this week, Democrat House Speaker Greg Stumbo decided that attending a political fundraiser was more important than doing the people’s work. Greg Stumbo and other House Democrat leaders decided to manipulate Tuesday’s prescheduled committee meetings so House Democrats could attend Alison Lundergan Grimes’ campaign rally with Bill Clinton.
In response to Greg Stumbo’s misplaced priorities, Republican Party of Kentucky Chairman Steve Robertson said, “Even Nancy Pelosi wouldn’t have pulled this kind of overtly political stunt.”
Yesterday, the Daily News addressed House Democrats’ misplaced priorities and rebuked Greg Stumbo for “dereliction of duty” with its editorial, “Stumbo should’ve focused on citizens, not on Bill Clinton.”
House Democrats’ misplaced priorities and Greg Stumbo’s “dereliction of duty” are just a couple more reasons Kentucky voters should vote to flip the House in 2014.
Click here for the Daily News‘ editorial, or read it below.
“Stumbo should’ve focused on citizens, not on Bill Clinton”
For elected officials, the people’s business should always come first.
Fortunately, most politicians follow this duty. They care about the concerns and needs of their constituents.
Apparently, House Speaker Greg Stumbo, D-Prestonsburg, must have missed the memo.
On Friday, Stumbo asked a court to quash subpoenas that he and other House members received to testify at a hearing Tuesday before the Legislative Ethics Commission on sexual harassment charges against former state Rep. John Arnold, D-Sturgis.
Arnold has been charged by the commission of violation of the legislative code of ethics stemming from sexual harassment complaints.
Stumbo said, “It’s absolutely ridiculous to schedule a hearing that requires members during a legislative session.”
But here is where Stumbo doesn’t really practice what he preaches. The speaker acts as though the legislative process shouldn’t be disrupted, but he has no problem pushing back prescheduled committee hearings Tuesday to attend a fundraiser with former President Bill Clinton, who was in Louisville campaigning for Democratic U.S. Senate candidate Alison Lundergan Grimes.
Arnold is accused of sexually harassing several employees while he was a state lawmaker. This is a serious issue, and one would think as speaker of the House, Stumbo would have appeared before the Legislative Ethics Commission to show that the issue is of great concern and deserves his full cooperation.
What kind of message does this send to the women who are bringing these allegations? And furthermore, what kind of message does it send to women throughout the state?
Stumbo thumbed his nose at this hearing to go spend time with a former president who has been accused numerous times of having affairs with women and admitted that he was sexually involved with former White House intern Monica Lewinsky.
One has to wonder if Stumbo condones Clinton’s actions by appearing at the event instead of attending a hearing in which some serious sexual harassment allegations have been made about one of his former colleagues. It is quite odd Grimes brought Clinton here, given his past history with women and considering she has made fighting and standing up for women in Kentucky one of her top campaign themes.
It is worth noting that Senate President Robert Stivers, R-Manchester, also was subpoenaed to testify at the Arnold hearing. He honored his subpoena and said no member of his chamber, Republican or Democrat, asked him to reschedule.
Stivers shows how a true leader acts. He gets it.
We hope that Stumbo had fun palling around with Clinton while the people’s business stood still on the House side. His actions Tuesday send the wrong message and are a dereliction of duty to the people of this state.
