Below are excerpts from an article in today’s Lexington Herald Leader. The story itself is interesting enough and somewhat typical of Ky state politics. However, this article does not contain what prompted me to post a blog. In the article I read earlier, there was a hilarious quote attributed to Goodman (the guy videotaping) when he was trying absolve himself of any blame.
“It was not a secret video taping because I knew about it.”
DUH!
And the best part is that, as stated in the article, ” … state law allows for secret recordings as long as one party is aware of it …”
Am I missing something?
State senator says meeting was secretly taped
FRANKFORT — When state Sen. Robin Webb met in her Capitol Annex office last week with the Republican candidate who wants to replace her and a representative of the Kentucky Medical Association, she was secretly videotaped, she said Thursday.
Webb, D-Grayson, said she resented the secret recording during a meeting with GOP rival Dr. Jack Ditty, and Dr. Henry Goodman, an Ashland neurologist. …
Goodman said Thursday he taped the meeting without Ditty’s knowledge “to make sure Sen. Webb’s comments about one of her bills were consistent with what she had been saying.”
Ditty said he had “nothing at all to do with the taping” and said Goodman should have informed Webb at the beginning of the meeting that he was taping her.
Goodman said he did not think about doing that — even though Ditty said he told Goodman not to tape the meeting. …
Worley said the two men “secretly tried to record her to see if they could get her to make an awkward statement or pick her nose or do something inappropriate that they could use in a campaign commercial.”
“That is how low they have stooped.”
…. Webb said the meeting began cordially. About 10 minutes into it, she said, she heard a beep and thought it was a pager for one of the doctors.
She noted that Goodman then drank from a bottle of orange juice.
Ten minutes later, Webb said, she heard another beep and saw Goodman eating a candy bar. “I thought he had a problem with his glucose or something,” she said.
About 10 minutes later, she said, she heard another beep and looked over her desk.
“I saw the black box that Ditty had placed between them and a round lens on it looking back at me. I asked if they were taping me,” she said.
“Goodman said yes, and he put it in his coat pocket. He asked me if that’s a problem. I tried to laugh it off, but it was so bizarre.
“I asked him ‘Why would you do that?’ He said he just wanted a tape, and Ditty said nothing.”
Webb, an attorney, said she knows that state law allows for secret recordings as long as one party is aware of it but that she considered the taping strange and unprofessional.
