A couple of days ago, the Governor of Kentucky said that he and many of his constituents were angry with American Idol, the mega-hit TV show, for portraying Kentucky in a negative way. In case you missed it, the show did a segment about Beckham Bates Elementary School in Letcher County in order to underscore the problem of illiteracy in Appalachia.

Instead of thanking the show for bringing the problem to the nation’s attention — the Governor’s office and Department of Education were swamped with messages from people who wanted to donate books, money, and other resources — Governor Ernie Fletcher, typically, worried more about image than substance. He said he was thinking about requesting equal time to extoll the commonwealth’s virtues.

Well, if Fletcher is going to send an emissary to appear on the show, I think it should be somebody who reflects Kentucky and can eloquently refute the idea that Kentucky is a haven of poverty and ignorance. So my nominee is Otis “Bullman” Hensley, one of the seven Democratic nominees for Governor.

The following is from the Hensley website, and I promise I am not making this up: “I want to personally thank the mayor and the police and fire departments in Anchorage, Kentucky. That’s where I rode Franko the Bull for the first time. I look forward to going back and riding the bull again.”

By sending “Bullman,” Fletcher could demonstrate his bipartisanship. He also might be able to increase voter support for Hensley, which would make the Democratic primary even screwier than it already is. Mainly, though, there’s the fact that when you look at “Bullman,” you’re looking at Kentucky. I’m sure he and Simon Cowell would find they have as much in common as, oh, Renee True and Queen Elizabeth.

While he’s chatting it up with Simon, Randy, and Paula, Otis also could extend them an invitation to hold some of their 2010 tryouts in the new Louisville Arena. That would fill up the place for a week or so. And, believe me, the Arena is going to need all the help it can get.

Maybe you saw that even before LG&E has begun to clear the site for the new arena by moving its equipment 30 yards at a cost to the taxpayers of a mere $62 million, the Louisville Arena Authority is trying to renege on its deal with the Metro Council.

If Arena Authority Chairman Jim Host gets his way — and he always has so far — the new agreement could lead to the city paying for some of the project’s operating expenses. The city has agreed to pay about $6.8 million a year for 30 years to help cover the arena’s projected $252 million construction cost. It also has agreed to make an additional $3.5 million if other revenue falls short.

Host assured the Metro Council that the Authority almost certainly would not need to ask for the additional payment. But now Host is changing his tune — shocking, I know –although he won’t publicly admit it, and the Democratic members of the Metro Council are justifiably concerned that the city will end up paying part of the operating expenses instead of having its contributions used strictly for construction.

As Council member Jim King aptly put it, the original agreement put up a “brick wall” between the city and arena operating expenses. “The new language,” King told the Courier-Journal, “would take down that brick wall.”

Having come out of its collective coma, it can only be hoped that the Council will continue to re-evaluate the bill of goods that Host sold them last year. They need to look past all the glitzy charts and artist’s renderings that Host keeps throwing out to divert attention from the fact that his numbers don’t — and never have — added up.

The arena’s revenue and operating expenses are based on the belief that the arena’s 21,000 seats can be filled to at least 90 per cent of capacity a minimum of 110 times a year. I don’t believe that’s possible without a professional team as the anchor tenant.

King and the other Council members should ask Host to bring them a mock calendar for 2007 showing them the 110 events that could have been booked this year. The mock calendar must take into account the major events that will prefer to stay at the Kentucky State Fairgrounds — the Tractor Pull, rodeos, World Championship Horse Show, various concerts, etc.

I hope we can agree that the arena’s primary tenant, the University of Louisville, would fill the arena an estimated 18 times annually for mens basketball games. I hope we also can agree that U of L womens games would barely draw crowds big enough to pay the LG&E bill. In order to make up for the negative revenue generated by the womens games, every other act or show booked into the arena would have to come close to filling it up.

This is where Host’s financing plan falls apart. Without a pro team, there simply aren’t enough concerts, ice shows, circuses, and NCAA championships that can be counted upon to draw 21,000 fans. If Host says there are, let him show us a mock calendar of what might have been booked into the arena this year.

The Metro Council should challenge him to do this. If he can, fine. But if he can’t, the project should immediately be put on hold for further study. King and his fellow Democrats have a good role model in House Speaker Jody Richards and his fellow Democrats, who refused to let Fletcher and Senate President David Williams bully them into a hasty decision about reforming the state employees pension plan earlier this year.

While the Council is at it, it also should ask Host to give a complete report on negotiations for the arena naming rights. He failed to get the kind of money he wanted, so he turned the project over to a professional firm. And what about the plans for a luxury hotel that would anchor the retail portion of the arena complex? How’s that coming along?

Finally, just for the hell of it, the Council  also should ask Abramson about the status of the so-called “Old Waterfront” site, which was the cheaper and more practical alternative to the LG&E site between Main Street and the Ohio River. Didn’t Abramson tell us a year ago that he already had been contacted by three or four commercial firms that wanted to buy the property and develop it?

Not to be a conspiracy theorist — OK, I am — but I can see a scenario in which the arena loses tons of money its first couple of years because the Authority simply can’t find enough events to pack the place 110 times a year. But suddenly an NBA team expresses interest in moving to Louisville, but only if U of L agrees to renegotiate its sweetheart deal with the Arena Authority.

Under pressure from the city and state, U of L is forced to either give in or move back to Freedom Hall. Tom Jurich and Jim Ramsey feel as if they’ve been used, which, of course, they have been. Too late, they realize that Host, not Hensley, is the real “Bullman.”

Meanwhile, nobody does a thing about wiping illiteracy off the face of Appalachia.