Jim Deckard has served as Executive Director of the Kentucky Bar Association for two years. Prior to that he had been counsel to Governor Ernie Fletcher and prior to that he had been Chief of Staff to Kentucky Supreme Court Chief Justice Joseph Lambert. Deckard says he is leaving to pursue a better opportunity at a Lexington law firm.
The press account of his leaving tried to tie his departure to recent controversies over bar president Barbara Bonar. Bonar had accused Deckard of improprieties. No one has said his departure is in any way related to those allegations.
What is, however, quite revealing is this taken from the story on Deckard's departure:
Deckard was hired in January 2007 after a nationwide search to take over the agency, which at the time had 48 employees and a $5.million annual budget...
Some lawyers at the time questioned whether Deckard's background as a Republican partisan was appropriate for the head of the bar association, to which all of the state's lawyers must belong.
The Kentucky Bar Association operates as an arm of the state Supreme Court which oversees the entire judicial system in the Commonwealth. The vast majority of judges and lawyers in Kentucky are democrats. In fact, with only a few exceptions, those republicans who have been elected to the judiciary have used their party affiliation only when it was of benefit to them, and denied it when it wasn't.
The only "question" regarding Deckard's background "as a Republican" came from those who are foolish enough to buy into the propaganda that a "partisan" cannot do a good job in office. Oddly enough, however, the huge number of "Democrat partisans" serving on the bench, and in other positions within the bar association have not been similarly "questioned". So wouldn't it be a fair question to ask who is it really that raised such questions about Deckard to begin with?
The answer is, apparently, that these "questions" about Deckard were raised by those people who think that the rest of us are stupid enough to buy into their malarkey that only "democrat partisans" can do their jobs, perform as judges and serve as executives at the KBA.
The truth is however that the astounding political bias within Kentucky's judicial system is laid bare by these tactics.
Comments