Bevin used state aircraft for right-wing conferences

Why isn't this a really big story? Better yet, how come the media hasn't even put two and two together?

As battered as Matt Bevin is for abusing state aircraft at taxpayer expense, I found something that just leaped right out at me. Recently, Moscow Matt released a "comprehensive list" of state aircraft flights. But this "comprehensive list" completely skips over at least 20 flights just this year involving political events or unknown reasons.

One of the flights that Bevin's list skipped over was to Lynchburg, Virginia - home of the far-right Liberty University. It happened to be on the same day he spoke at the far-right Conservative Political Action Conference there.

Yet media reports that say he spoke there on that day act like it's a mystery why he flew there. They're saying he flew to Lynchburg for legitimate state business, but must have also flown there on a separate flight on the same day at his own expense for the humiliating CPAC spectacle? The moment I saw he flew to Lynchburg, I knew what it was for.

Another flight that his list skipped was to St. Simons Island, Georgia. That was another red flag. Media reports give no suggestion what the flight was for, but the destination rang a bell, because I knew that area was the site of another right-wing conference. Sure enough, it turns out that a secretive conference by the far-right American Enterprise Institute was being held in the area right at the same time as Bevin's flight.

I could figure all of this out in a split second, but the media can't even put any of it together? Even in media circles, there's some understanding that you're not supposed to use taxpayer resources for political purposes, but it doesn't seem like the media grasps just how big this story is. Kentucky has a history of right-wing politicization of everything. And I mean everything. But this is bad even by Kentucky standards. At these events, Bevin didn't so much promote his own election campaign or business interests but rather an entire ideological program - and did so in the name of Kentucky taxpayers. This program has denied Kentuckians personal and economic liberties. People are expected to fall in line behind this program.

That's not leadership.