Posted on 10/14/2006 7:54:06 PM PDT by cquiggy
News Posted on Sat, Oct. 14, 2006 ELECTION 2006 Lewis calls on Weaver to leave race Cites 1991 guard officer firing scandal By John Stamper And Ryan Alessi HERALD-LEADER FRANKFORT BUREAU FRANKFORT - U.S. Rep. Ron Lewis called yesterday for Democratic opponent Mike Weaver to withdraw from the race for Kentucky's 2nd Congressional District seat, given Weaver's role in a 14-year-old Kentucky National Guard scandal that led to a prison sentence for Weaver's former boss.
Lewis released a television ad calling Weaver, a retired Army colonel, "not fit for duty in Congress."
"This was dirty politics that Mr. Weaver was participating in," Lewis said in an afternoon teleconference with reporters. "It was illegal politics."
In a statement released last night, Weaver said Lewis was peddling "played-out, tedious" allegations and thanked him "for conceding a month early."
"The only people who have accused me of doing anything wrong are failed politicians gasping for air in a tough campaign," Weaver said in the statement.
Weaver and Lewis are campaigning to represent a conservative section of the state that stretches from Shelby and Spencer counties south through Elizabethtown to Bowling Green and northwest to Owensboro.
Lewis' allegations revolve around Weaver's former role on the Kentucky National Guard Retention Board, which recommends whether senior officers should keep their positions or be forced to retire. In 1992, that three-person board -- including Weaver -- recommended dismissal of 25 officers, an unusually high number.
It turned out that all but one of the officers had declined to contribute to the 1991 gubernatorial campaign of Gov. Brereton Jones.
Another military board later ruled that many dismissed officers were entitled to back pay and reinstatement because politics played a role in their dismissals -- a decision upheld in January 2000 by the secretary of the Army.
In May 1995, Weaver told The Courier-Journal of Louisville that politics had played no role in the board's recommendation to dismiss the officers.
As the Army's senior adviser to the Kentucky National Guard, Weaver told the newspaper, he was "the independent member of the board ... the one who could have no political stake in its decisions.
"And I was the one pushing the hardest" to remove officers, Weaver said at the time.
The FBI investigated the case in the mid-1990s. Former Kentucky National Guard Adjutant General Robert DeZarn, who appointed Weaver to the board, was convicted on a federal charge of lying to investigators and served a prison sentence.
Weaver was not named in the investigation or charged with any wrongdoing. Still, Lewis said, Weaver disobeyed his oath to serve the board without prejudice and partiality.
"There were a whole lot of dirty players in this that didn't get tried and convicted," Lewis said.
He said Weaver shared a Frankfort apartment in 1992 with Kentucky National Guard Chief of Staff Col. Donnie Martin, one of several officials who pushed guard officers to give $500 to Jones' campaign.
In his statement, Weaver said he occasionally slept on Martin's couch when he was working late and didn't want to travel home.
'Pretty hard hitting'
Lewis' latest ad shows newspaper headlines such as "Politics seeped into Guard's ranks," while the announcer refers to the "pay for promotion scandal."
"Kentucky National Guardsmen up for promotion are forced to make political contributions," the announcer says. "Twenty-four guardsmen refuse. Then Mike Weaver's retention board recommends the dismissal of those guardsmen."
Scott Lasley, associate professor of political science at Western Kentucky University, called the 30-second spot "pretty hard hitting."
"Clearly they are attempting to undercut the core message and underlying theme of Weaver's campaign by working to establish that he is not above politics as usual," Lasley said.
Before this week, the race had remained fairly quiet, even though Weaver was touted by national Democrats as one of their best hopes to retake control of the U.S. House. They hope to pick up 15 Republican seats in November.
Earlier in the week, Weaver told the Herald-Leader that Republicans who might have covered up the Mark Foley scandal had demonstrated a "liberal tendency." He later issued a statement calling his remarks "a poor attempt at sarcasm."
Still, the fact that Lewis is running a negative ad could indicate that Lewis thinks the race is close, Lasley said.
In his statement, Weaver said, "He won't release any polls and he won't meet me in debate. Things aren't looking good for Ron Lewis."
One of those dismissed
William Y. Robbins, a former colonel, said yesterday that he brought details of the National Guard scandal to the Lewis campaign's attention about a month ago after hearing remarks by Weaver questioning Lewis' medical discharge from the military.
Robbins served as director of personnel for the guard between 1990 and 1992 and was one of those dismissed in 1992. For Robbins, that meant he lost his position in the guard as well as his state civil service position as personnel director.
He said he had refused to attend a 1991 "Preakness Party" at the home of then-Adjutant General Billy Wellman after getting tipped off that officers would be hit up for campaign donations to Jones.
Robbins said that, as a result, he and others who did the same thing found their positions yanked away by the retention board.
Robbins said he was surprised at what he called a transformation of Weaver, who worked as an adviser to the adjutant general from 1989 to 1992.
"At first, I thought he was a pretty straight arrow," Robbins said. "He'd get paperwork that said a guy was to be promoted, and if Weaver thought he was overweight, he'd say, 'Go get a scale.' I thought, oh, this guy is pretty good. But then they got to him."
Robbins said he noticed the change when Weaver began sharing an apartment in 1992 with Martin.
"You could just see him turn," Robbins said of Weaver. "I remember thinking, 'What in the world is going on with this guy?' Well, he found his niche: politics."
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Watch the ad from the Ron Lewis campaign and read Mike Weaver's response on Pol Watchers, the Kentucky.com political blog.
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Reach John Stamper at (859) 231-3204, (502) 227-4390 or jstamper@herald-leader.com.
Kentucky ping
It shoulds like this is Rove firing back, but is it too late.
By the way does anyone have the link that he add that uses Hardball interview with the Dem canidate over if he would vote for the iraq war.
If Ron Lewis is losing, we are in deep doo-doo. But, I talked to his former chief of staff a few weeks ago and she thought he would be fine. My guess is that the Kentucky GOP just wanted to put this guy Weaver in his place. Stuff like this is too good not to use, even if you don't really have to. If Lewis can win by a big margin this time, Dems will probably leave him alone.
I knew Ron back when he was still a Baptist preacher. Good fellow. Here's hopin he wins.
I knew Weaver in the Army when he was a registered Republican. He was a POS then and has only added slime to his resume since.
I have to ask, was he sleeping on the couch?
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