Kemper will serve the people

Joel Pett’s Aug. 19 cartoon comparing U.S. Rep. Andy Barr to a poodle pulled by the leash of the banking industry is truly unfair: to poodles. They are independent dogs and, unless too foo-fooed up, quite dignified. And what is poor Barr to do now that the coal industry has collapsed and no longer rules Frankfort, let alone Washington? Is he to think for himself or, even more complexly, try to think of what is best for the people of the 6th District? Barr needs somebody at the end of the leash, and bankers are a step up from coal operators.

Well, their hands don’t get quite so dirty; when they ruin lives, folks don’t stand around open mine pits talking to TV reporters.

We need bankers, we just need other people at the table, too, like Nancy Jo Kemper, who knows how to reconcile different interests. As director of the Kentucky Council of Churches, she got people to agree who all thought they had God on their side.

That’s a lot more complicated than just following the money as Barr does.

Kemper’s no poodle, but she has a poodle’s sense of smell. She can smell something rotten in all that money the banking industry has sent Barr’s way.

This story was originally published September 2, 2016 at 6:57 PM with the headline "Kemper will serve the people."