In the Monday, June 2, 2008 edition of the "Southern Scene," a weekly mailer published by the Metropolis Planet, the Metropolis, Illinois weekly newspaper, an article appears on the front page entitled "Nuclear facility cancer case backlog is probed." The article concerns "a backlog of former workers at the Paducah gaseous diffusion plant who have been diagnosed with cancer." I spoke to the article's writer, Jim Hall, long time reporter for the Planet, by phone yesterday.

Jim told me that the article was based on a press release they had received recently. The press release was about a letter sent from (I believe but I'm not sure) the House Energy Oversight and Investigations subcommittee, signed by chair Bart Stupak, from Michigan, and our two local Republican Reps Ed Whitfield from Western Kentucky and John Shimkus, from Southern Illinois. I searched on all three of their websites, plus the subcommittee website for a copy of the letter or press release, but I can't find it.

The "Scene" story does quote the letter however, in the sentence "To think that some of these workers are being forced to wait up to seven years for their cases go through is especially troubling." The article states that "as of May 20, there were some cases from the Paducah facility dating as far back as 2001.

The article does not provide a total number of former workers in this backlog, but Hall said that there was a number in the press release, but it wasn't broken down by site, so they didn't use it. My understanding is that it amounts to tens of thousands of workers.

What's wrong with this picture? Even McConnell's Republican cohorts, Whitfield, his fellow Kentuckian, and Shimkus, another Republican lapdog from immediately across the river, are questioning the program - joining with a Democratic lead investigation.

So how does McConnell get off just so blatantly lying about how great the program is in his TV ad? It's just so disgusting that I refuse to let go of it. It's time that the mainstream media look into this. It can't be both ways. It can't be the greatest program that is saving all these little people's lives and at the same time be so backlogged that his own people are investigating the problems.

Three strikes and your out - that's baseball. McConnell's run out of pitches. Let's hope the people call him out!