From Jerry Lundergan

I'm surprised that I'm typing this here but he is the chairman...

Statement from Jerry Lundergan, Chairman
Kentucky Democratic Party
March 10, 2005

Regardless of the public spin, the results of President George W. Bush visit to Louisville today will be unfair and imbalanced. Yesterday I called on Senator Mitch McConnell to allow a few Democrats to attend today's presidential visit. He ignored our appeal. Democrats were not offered a single seat. Sunday on national TV Senator McConnell pleaded for an opportunity to engage in a bipartisan discussion on Social Security. Yet in less than a week in his home state, his words do not match his political posturing. Rather he chooses to protect President Bush for the harsh realities resulting from his own cruel political scheme. This is nothing more than a Republican assault masquerading as an effort to maintain and preserve Social Security. It is clear they intend to do neither! Sadly this resembles the Republican sell out of Kentucky's tobacco farm families to corporate interests.

This despite the recent bipartisan efforts of Kentucky Democrats to cross the aisle to adopt a State Budget and make needed changes in state tax policy. Yet on the issue of Social Security, Democrats are receiving a cold shoulder. It is ironic that at today's bogus forum the elderly, the disabled, the orphaned and the Democrats are all locked out in the cold.

I am confident that the good people of Kentucky will recognize this as Washington politics as usual. Today is not an effort to build a consensus or gather facts; it is nothing more than an effort to create a smoke screen. They want to distract from the Republican efforts to dismantle Social Security and with Enron like accounting, reward to their partners on Wall Street!