Al Cross: Flashback To Larry Forgy's 1991 Announcement

In his Sunday Courier-Journal column, Al Cross brought us back to the historic 1991 campaign announcement by Larry Forgy. However, the pinnacle of Larry Forgy's powers are yet to come:

On such a full sea are we now afloat, and we must take the current when it serves, or lose our ventures.

BRUTUS, in "Julius Caesar" by William Shakespeare

The words seemed a bit odd coming from Democratic Gov. Steve Beshear, in his State of the Commonwealth address, because they were favorite campaign lines of Larry Forgy, the state's leading Republican orator not so long ago.

They seemed particularly strange because Beshear was quoting Brutus' advice but not following it. He didn't take advantage of being at "the height of my powers" -- as Forgy described himself in his dramatic declaration for governor in 1991, and as Beshear was Monday night, when he addressed legislators and a statewide television audience in the wake of a landslide election.