We learned last week that Kentucky taxpayers would be on the hook for $224,703 in legal fees because Rowan County clerk Kim Davis wouldn’t do her job in 2015 and give (legal) marriages licenses to gay couples.

Who deserves the blame for that fine? A rational person would say Kim Davis. Hell, an irrational person would say Kim Davis. Maybe you can argue her Christian lawyer deserves some blame for urging her to fight this battle.

But that lawyer, Liberty Counsel’s Mat Staver, pointed his finger elsewhere this morning on his “Faith and Freedom” radio broadcast.

“If, at the end of the day,” Staver said, “the state of Kentucky has to pay for attorney’s fees, whose responsibility is that? It’s not Kim Davis, it’s not Rowan Country, it’s not the current legislative body … it’s certainly not Gov. Matt Bevin.” “It is the former liberal Democratic Gov. Beshear,” Staver asserted. “Had he [provided a religious liberty accommodation to Davis,] this case never would have gone anywhere. Had he done that, Kim Davis never would have spent any time in jail. Had he done that, the ACLU never would have had a case.”

If the former governor had just allowed Davis not to do her job, none of this would ever have happened! It’s a complete abdication of responsibility. It’s like a drunk driver blaming the person behind the counter at the liquor store for selling him alcohol.

Davis took a job she couldn’t perform and saw herself as a martyr for not following the law. Staver enabled her and fundraised off of it. Taxpayers should blame the people who broke the law, not the governor for trying to enforce it.

If voters are mad, they should remember that next time Davis is up for reelection. Maybe there are people on the ballot who respect our legal system and won’t impose their personal bigoted beliefs on everyone else.

(via Right Wing Watch)

