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Friday, August 19th, 2011

From Judge Kennedy: Armistead Passing the Buck on Jobs

For the eighth consecutive month, Alabama Republicans have been in charge of every branch of our state government, including economic and workforce development and industry recruitment. For the fourth consecutive month, Alabama unemployment has gone up. Chairman Armistead is right — actions do speak louder than words, and we would love to see the Republican majority he’s so proud of take decisive action on turning our state economy around.

Chairman Armistead can blame Washington all he wants, but the fact of the matter is that in Alabama, the buck stops with Governor Bentley and the Republican legislative leadership. If he tore his eyes from Beltway papers like Politico long enough to read the Dothan Eagle this week, Chairman Armistead might have noticed our Republican Governor is on a taxpayer-funded tour of his very own.

Governor Bentley’s bus tour made a stop in Enterprise yesterday — coincidentally enough where the Coffee County Republicans hosted Republican strategist Karl Rove later that evening.

Obviously we can all agree Alabama needs a comprehensive plan for economic development, and it’s been great to hear Speaker Hubbard telling anyone and everyone that the Republicans will finally get around to talking seriously about jobs next year. It’s just too bad we didn’t have a year to wait, but certainly Chairman Armistead will find a way to blame everyone but his own Party for that too.