At a meeting this morning, a house panel couldn't agree on what the casino bill should look like, namely whether the tracks should be required to get approval from local voters or a local legislative body before getting a casino license. Those amendments were offered by Rep. Larry Clark. When there was an objection to the quick changes, the committee voted to adjourn without taking any action. The chairman, Rep. Darryl Owens saying he had no plans to call a special meeting of his committee to move the bill forward. And there's still no guarantee in any version of the house bill that would require any of the licenses go to horse tracks. So what's really going on here????

Well, if you talk to horse industry folks, they'll privately say they believe they're being taken to the woodshed by Speaker Jody Richards and his close allies (Joni Jenkins and Tim Firkins) who believe the horsey folks who have spent too much time and cash on Beshear and haven't committed enough cash to democratic legislative races this fall. Richards says he doesn't know why the horse industry folks would think he's working against them because he says, it's not true. He refused to say whether he favors or opposes a guarantee that the race tracks get some of the casino licenses.

Richards' chief of staff, David Kaplan, was in the committee room this morning when the meeting fell apart and adjourned without any action. He didn't seem too surprised or disappointed that the casino bill had obviously hit a snag. But why would Larry Clark and Rob Wilkey being pushing last minute amendments designed to require some local approval for anyone who wants a casino license? Why would they want to hold up the bill? Who's side are they on......the tracks or their collegues who want to slap the tracks around a little and make them work a little harder for their goodies? I don't have the answer, but clearly there's plenty of politicking going on behind the scenes on a rudderless bill that appears to be lacking a captain.