Al Cross | Holiday gifts for Kentucky pols, newsmakers

Al Cross

Christmas is a lot about traditions, and for 30 years the proprietors of this space have continued the tradition started in 1981 by the late Ed Ryan, then the chief of The C-J's Frankfort bureau, who thought Kentucky's political figures deserved some holiday gifts in return for all the news they had created for the Frankfort press corps in the year ending.

The press corps is thinner these days, and your columnist is rarely a part of it, but with the help of some witty elves, without whom this list would not have been possible, we've come up with a few items that seem fitting.

• U.S. Sen. Mitch McConnell: We're tempted to get him a framed collage of all the magazine covers he's been on lately, as Senate majority leader-elect, but his staff is probably already doing that, so how about this: A pair of velvet-covered gloves to cover the brass knuckles he will have to use (figuratively speaking, of course) on tea-party Sens. Ted Cruz of Texas and Mike Lee of Utah.

• U.S. Sen. Rand Paul: A first-class Cuban cigar, for his sensible, realistic reaction to President Obama's normalization of relations with our big island neighbor. Also, a pair of ballet shoes, to represent the delicate pirouettes he is making to shift from old statements and policy positions to new ones. But he will need more than fancy footwork to run for re-election and president at the same time in 2016.

• U.S. Rep. Harold "Hal" Rogers, R-Somerset: For his final term heading the House Appropriations Committee, a diary to keep as he works with Republican majorities in the House and Senate to pass all spending bills on time, for the first time in many years. Or maybe a good digital voice recorder, since his first career was in broadcasting. Rogers was first elected to Congress from the Fifth District in 1981, and has plenty of stories to write a book when he retires (which doesn't seem to be anytime soon).

• Gov. Steve Beshear: A lump of coal to signify his weak enforcement of strip-mining and clean-water laws, as illustrated by last month's ruling in Franklin Circuit Court. But also, an album of the 10 best versions of "The Wind Beneath My Wings," to signify the lift his term-limited, gliding-out administration should get from Crit Luallen, whom he named lieutenant governor to succeed . . .

• Jerry Abramson: A durable, laminated map of the Metro commuter rail system in the Washington, D.C., area, and a fat fare card, to help him and wife Madeline explore when he's not working at his new job, Obama's director of intergovernmental affairs.

• Andy Beshear, son of the governor and only candidate for attorney general: A bound volume of the open-records and open-meetings opinions his father rendered as AG in 1980-83, to remind him of the essential principle of transparency in government and politics, and the need to release the list of clients for whom he has practiced "attorney-general defense."

• Attorney General Jack Conway: To the Democratic candidate for governor and Duke graduate, a wardrobe of items in official UK blue (Pantone Matching System color No. 286; slightly darker Duke blue is No. 287) for use before, during and after the likely 2015 NCAA men's basketball championship game. Suitable for re-gifting, out of gratitude, to . . .

• Secretary of State Alison Lundergan Grimes: Since the latest report is that she and state House Floor Leader Rocky Adkins won't challenge Conway and Majority Caucus Chair Sannie Overly for governor and lieutenant governor, she gets an American Association of Political Consultants directory, to look for some to serve her better in her next race than those in the last one, against McConnell.

• Louisville Mayor Greg Fischer: After the bruising experiences with the Louisville Metro Council over a local minimum wage and a council report about foul-ups in Metro Animal Services, a vacation to a quiet place — Buckhorn Lake State Resort Park, which would have the added advantage of letting him take some side trips to test the waters for another U.S. Senate bid, for Paul's seat in 2016.

• State Rep. Darryl Owens: A dart board with the image of Rep. Larry Clark, who isn't supporting his fellow Jefferson County Democrat's bid to succeed him as speaker pro tem of the state House, risking the county's longstanding position in the House leadership (which Clark maintained despite his troubles with most of his delegation colleagues).

• Rep. Brent Yonts, D-Greenville, chair of the state House State Government Committee, who doesn't want individual state pensions to be revealed as the state tackles its woefully underfunded pension system: A solar-powered light, with battery, that doesn't go out — to remind him that "sunlight is the best disinfectant," as Louisville's Justice Louis Brandeis said.

• Wendell Ford, former senator, governor, lieutenant governor and state senator, who had some close calls early in his career but never lost a race: Prayers for another dose of luck as he continues to fight cancer in Owensboro (which Ed Ryan also called home).

• Our readers: Best wishes for happy holidays, and a governor's race that is less about personalities than about the many tough issues that face the commonwealth.

Al Cross, former C-J political writer, is director of the Institute for Rural Journalism and Community Issues and associate professor in the University of Kentucky School of Journalism and Telecommunications. His opinions are his own, not UK's.