Explanation, please

Mongiardo must give words context

It's time for Senate candidate Lt. Gov. Daniel Mongiardo to man up.

We're talking about the recordings of him that keep popping up on the Internet. Yes, they were surreptitiously taped, are obviously spliced and have been distributed anonymously. As such, they are both high-tech dirty trick and political comedy in the old Kentucky tradition.

Yet some of Mongiardo's statements, which he has not denied making, are provocative no matter the context.

What did he mean when he said that being Gov. Steve Beshear's lieutenant governor is like "being married to a whore"? Or that "the only difference between (former Gov. Ernie) Fletcher and Beshear is Beshear has not had a blowup yet, but it is coming"?

The Fletcher administration's "blowup" was a raft of criminal indictments for violating state laws against political interference in hiring. What exactly was Mongiardo implying?

These recordings, for which no one has claimed responsibility, cut with a double edge. They make Mongiardo, who is seeking the Democratic nomination for U.S. Senate, look like a disloyal motormouth and ingrate. Beshear has endorsed his Senate bid.

They also can be heard as an administration insider, someone who should know, making accusations of corruption against Beshear.

Only Mongiardo can supply the context for his remarks. Only he can explain what he meant and why he said it. It seems to us he owes that much to taxpayers and voters.

If Mongiardo knows of something foul in the Beshear administration, he should speak up. He is, after all, asking voters for a position of trust. How can they trust him if he won't come clean about what he says when he thinks no tape recorder is running?