I just posted a long diary on SCHIP over at the Blue Grass Roots v.3. The bottom line is that even Governor Fletcher disagrees with Senator McConnell's attacks on children's health insurance.

Governor Fletcher announced his 2008 "health care agenda" yesterday. About the only sensible thing in it is this:

ICARE 4 Kids – Seek federal approval for a new program, ICARE 4 Kids, to support moderate income Kentucky families and their employers by making private health insurance more affordable. The ICARE 4 Kids program would provide premium assistance to families and employers through an expansion of the Kentucky Children’s Health Insurance Program (KCHIP). Plans also include continuing to increase access to important preventive dental care for Kentucky children.

One problem, though: this sounds like an expansion of KCHIP under the waiver process provided in the current system. The waiver process that President Bush basically unilaterally eliminated two weeks ago, and which Senator McConnell thinks is irresponsible. The President's budget request for SCHIP (which funds KCHIP) doesn't provide enough resources to maintain current enrollment, much less expand it to "moderate income" families. Senator McConnell strongly supports President Bush's meager funding request.

This is something that needs to be reported on in the major papers. Does Governor Fletcher disagree with Senator McConnell's position on SCHIP?

It wasn't too long ago that Governor Fletcher was the poster boy for Republican criminality -- the pardons still evoke some disbelief among those not immersed in KY politics. But he simply can't compete with any of the recent Republican scandals -- prostitutes, lewdness, and pages really seem to catch the imagination.

Pol Watchers reports that Senator McConnell will be appearing at three "upcoming" Fletcher fundraisers. There's a fund-raiser tonight in Louisville, Monday in Owensboro, and Tuesday in Lexington.

The outcome of these fundraisers should serve as a barometer not only for Fletcher's support, but also the pull that Senator McConnell retains among the GOP faithful. If Fletcher reports paltry numbers even with the Senator by his side, McConnell will have to explain his lack of results.

This is getting ridiculous. The details on the tax breaks for Peabody seem to be getting worse and worse.

First, it was the use of severance tax cuts as an incentive, when the severance tax is one of the few ways "to compensate for the environmental, social and economic costs of coal mining." Now, it's cash advances that don't need to be repaid.

The Bridge has the LRC fiscal impact estimate.

Mark Nickolas has pictures of Governor Fletcher's family at the creation museum.

It shouldn't shock many Kentuckians that Karl Rove worked with the White House to enlist "political appointees at every level of government in a permanent campaign that was an integral part of his strategy to establish Republican electoral dominance."

We've seen the same thing in Frankfort for the last four years. Even today, after all the investigations and pardons, Governor Fletcher still thinks over-sized govt checks and over-sized govt tax breaks are part of his reelection campaign.

Ernie Fletcher was an early, and rather vigorous, adopter of the Rove strategy. Perhaps because it's not just the Rove strategy, but the Rove-McConnell strategy. After all, Scott Jennings, Senator McConnell's former political director, was one of Rove's key hatchet men.

And Mike Duncan, "the long-time supporter and fundraiser for Senator Mitch McConnell," now chairs the Republican National Committee, where he works at Rove's direction. The same Mike Duncan who chaired Governor Fletcher's transition team in 2003. The same Mike Duncan who said Governor Fletcher's pardon's were "commendable."

And Secretary Chao:

Labor Secretary Elaine L. Chao made 13 official visits in the last two months of the election, never straying more than 50 miles from the media markets on Rove's office list, the analysis showed. That August, she attended three local Fraternal Order of Police meetings in the battleground states of Pennsylvania, Ohio and Michigan to tout new overtime rules that would soon go into effect. Likewise, she traveled to Tampa -- another targeted media market -- to announce grants for recipients who actually lived in Jacksonville, Fla., a less competitive area.

Kentucky, 2003-2007, is Karl Rove's vision for America. Governor Fletcher and Senator McConnell have brought it to fruition. Thankfully, it's not Kentucky's vision, and we are going to reject it over the next eighteen months.

Shocker: "The decision by the Executive Branch Ethics Commission to end its investigation of Gov. Ernie Fletcher without bringing charges was driven by partisan politics, the one Democrat involved in that decision said yesterday."

More from Mark Hebert and Mark Nickolas.