There are few reporters who I enjoy reading more than Phil Kabler.  I mean, it cracks me up pretty much every article I read.

Of course, Kabler was the main talk of the Senate this week because of his reporting of Roman Prezioso slapping around racetrack lobbyist Nelson Robinson (that is another whole blog entry, but I can think of few people who need slapped around more than Nelson, but I digress).  Of course, Roman ripped Kabler for “reporting” on the story. 

The reason? 

Well, Kabler never bothered to ask Prezioso his side of the story.

Shock of shocks.

While, most of us who followed Kabler here in the Valley already know that Kabler doesn’t bother to get any other side of the story than that he wants to “report” on, it struck Prezioso as odd that he would simply print Nelson’s version.

Look, the problem with Kabler is its impossible to tell where his political commentary ends and his “reporting” begins.

A great example was Tuesday’s Gazette article on something as simple as the resolution that failed to pass to change the signs back to Wild, Wonderful West Virginia.

Kabler wrote a front page story. 

He spoke with Senate Transportation Chairman John Unger and asked Unger why the Senate voted down the House Resolution.  Unger said it was really the Republicans who did and that they were loud.

Unger was right.

Kabler’s next move? 

Well, he wrote…  If the minority party’s goal was to hand Gov. Joe Manchin a defeat, they might have actually played into his hands, because Manchin had made it clear he did not like the House version of the resolution.

So, since I was there, I thought…. huh, that’s odd, I wonder who told him that the Republicans were trying to hand Manchin a defeat.

After all, the reason Republicans voted down the House resolution was because they supported Manchin’s position on Wild and Wonderful and didn’t like the House version that had Wild and Wonderful AND Almost Heaven on the signs.

So, it struck me as odd that one of the Senate Republicans (who led the fight for the name change in the first place) would have said that to Kabler.

So, I turned to the back page for the rest of the article and I looked for a quote from a Senate Republican.

And….

There wasn’t one.

And, I thought to myself… KABLER GOT ME AGAIN!

Now, wouldn’t any other reporter, who makes a comment surmising the motives of the Republicans…. well…  wouldn’t they simply ASK one of the Republicans what their reason was?

Wouldn’t you think it odd that the Republicans, who pushed for the name change first and loudest, would all of a sudden abandon that push to try to “deal a blow” to Manchin when we actually had THE SAME POSITION?

This is a perfect example of Kabler’s reporting. 

ANY other Gazette reporter, Nyden, Searls, any of them would have simply walked two feet after talking to Unger, grabbed one of the Senate Republicans and asked, hey, why did you guys vote against that resolution?

Not Kabler.  Kabler probably asked Unger why the Republicans would do that, Unger probably shrugged his shoulders and said, I dunno, maybe they were trying to embarass the Governor.

That’s bad enough.  What’s worse and more likely is Kabler probably just thought to himself, crazy Republicans, they thought they were getting even with Manchin and they REALLY helped him out and then wrote that into part of his story.

But, either way, wouldn’t it have been Journalism 101 to simply walk across the aisle about 10 feet and ask Don Caruth or John Yoder or Donna Boley WHY they voted against it?

It’s maddening.

But, that’s Kabler. 

And, you can’t help but love him and his jounalistic style.  Where’s journalist-extraodinaire Cindy Frich when you need her?

The article is below - so you can see for yourself…

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‘Wild, Wonderful’ signs will go up, despite legislators

DOH to begin changes soon

“Wild, Wonderful” soon will replace “Open for Business” on state welcome signs - even though the resolution to approve the change died Saturday in the waning moments of the 2008 legislative session.

By Phil Kabler

Staff writer

“Wild, Wonderful” soon will replace “Open for Business” on state welcome signs - even though the resolution to approve the change died Saturday in the waning moments of the 2008 legislative session.

The Senate took up the resolution (HC27) shortly before the session ended at midnight Saturday, but voted it down on a voice vote on the Senate floor - an outcome Senate Transportation Chairman John Unger, D-Berkeley, attributed to Senate Republicans.

“It was the other side of the aisle that voted it down,” Unger said Monday. “They were very loud.”

If the minority party’s goal was to hand Gov. Joe Manchin a defeat, they might have actually played into his hands, because Manchin had made it clear he did not like the House version of the resolution.

Instead of the governor’s “Wild, Wonderful” proposal - selected as the favorite after two Internet/telephone polls last fall by more than 100,000 participants - the House determined that the signs should include “Almost Heaven,” as well as “Wild and Wonderful.”

That resolution passed the House 98-0 on Feb. 4.

“What I understand is that the governor didn’t want it,” Unger said. “It wasn’t really his proposal because along with ‘Wild, Wonderful,’ the House put in ‘Almost Heaven.’”

Manchin spokeswoman Lara Ramsburg confirmed that the governor favored his original proposal.

“He preferred the sentiment of the people,” she said. “We had thousands, tens of thousands of people who voted.”

While the governor would have preferred the Legislature’s endorsement of the welcome sign slogan, the defeat of the resolution will not preclude changing the slogan on more than 100 signs around the state, she said.

“Wild, Wonderful” soon will replace “Open for Business” on state welcome signs - even though the resolution to approve the change died Saturday in the waning moments of the 2008 legislative session.

“We wanted to involve the Legislature in the process,” she said, “and we attempted to do that.”

Had the resolution passed, it would have represented the official opinion of the Legislature, but otherwise would carry no weight of law.

Ramsburg said Division of Highways workers will begin changing the slogans on larger interstate welcome signs in the immediate future. On those signs, the current, widely panned “Open for Business” slogans are removable, and can be easily replaced with “Wild, Wonderful.”

Smaller signs will have to be replaced, which will take a couple of months, she said. Total cost of the project is about $50,000.

In the Senate, the resolution had sat in Unger’s Transportation Committee with no action for more than a month. The committee met on the Senate floor Saturday afternoon to advance the resolution.

Meanwhile, although the “Wild, Wonderful” resolution died Saturday, a resolution to name the Megalonyx jeffersonii as the state fossil was resurrected Saturday.

The Senate on Thursday rejected the original resolution to make the remains of the prehistoric ground sloth, discovered in Monroe County by Thomas Jefferson, as the state fossil. However, the House amended the provision back into another resolution, to designate the timber rattlesnake as the state reptile (SCR28).

The Senate passed that resolution late Saturday, after being informed that each resolution had been proposed by schoolchildren as class projects.

“We didn’t want to be the Grinch that stole hope from these kids,” Unger said.

To contact staff writer Phil Kabler, use e-mail or call 348-1220.