Andanh.com

Retired corporate chieftains are grousing about their successors. Ex-Federal Reserve chairmen are second-guessing steps taken by the current Fed chief. And President Bush is being nipped at by two former presidents.

It's an upending of tradition. Former presidents didn't publicly challenge the policies of sitting ones. Former Fed chairmen were seldom seen or heard. And retired CEOs were usually just that, retired, and spotted on the golf course, not on CNBC.

But in recent days:

-Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke's unorthodox moves to keep the housing crisis from spreading drew pointed comments about the crisis from predecessors Paul Volcker and Alan Greenspan.

The Rev. Jeremiah Wright said he was in Newark when the terrorist strike occurred and, from his hotel window, he said he saw the second plane hit the World Trade Center. Some of his congregants lost loved ones in the Pentagon and at the World Trade Center, he said.

"We want revenge. They wanted revenge," Wright told "Bill Moyers' Journal." "God doesn't want to leave you there, however. God wants redemption. God wants wholeness. And ... that's the context, the biblical context, I used to try to get people sitting again in that sanctuary."

The interview, for broadcast Friday night, is the first the pastor has given since video of his preaching gained national attention in March, putting Obama's campaign for the presidential nomination on the defensive.

The controversy forced Obama to distance himself from the minister, after a 20-year association through Trinity United Church of Christ in Chicago. In a March 18 speech in Philadelphia, Obama described the history of injustice that fueled Wright's comments, while also condemning his pastor's statements and acknowledging white resentment of African-Americans.

John Turner, chairman of the state Council on Postsecondary Education, said it would be "premature" to say how the council will react to Beshear.

"The first step is for me to get in and see the governor and see exactly what his goals are," Turner said.

Beshear made his order Thursday after Attorney General Jack Conway stated that the council's recent hiring of Lexington lawyer Brad Cowgill was illegal.

Although Beshear and Turner said Friday they hope to settle the dispute amicably, Turner speculated in an April 21 letter to council members that the governor might have political motives for questioning Cowgill's hiring.

He has named Leonard Peters, a nationally acclaimed chemical engineer with ties to the University of Kentucky, to be secretary of the new Energy and Environmental Cabinet.

Bob Vance of Maysville is expected to stay on as secretary of the Environmental and Public Protection Cabinet, but it might get a new name. Vance has previously told state lawmakers that the agency's Department of Labor will also become a stand-alone cabinet in late June.

The reorganization will undo moves by former Republican Gov. Ernie Fletcher that combined cabinets for the environment and public protection and abolished a labor cabinet.

Tom FitzGerald, an environmentalist and attorney with the Kentucky Resources Council, praised the reorganization "because the current cabinet is too large for anyone to govern."

"I definitely would not qualify for any hall of fame," said Obama, who uses the game for exercise and describes himself as not bad for a 46-year-old guy. "I've already said we're taking out the bowling alley at the White House and putting in a basketball court."

Touring the Indiana Hall of Fame with Obama was George McGinnis, who played pro basketball with the Indiana Pacers and Philadelphia 76ers. He pointed with pride to the state championship his high school team won in 1969.

"Who's the best player you ever saw?" Obama asked. The answer was Julius Erving, or Dr. J.

Obama also got tested at one exhibit, where he was challenged to make a shot. His first shot was an air ball, but his second hit nothing but net.

Questions surfaced about the status of the court's administrative director only a day after Chief Justice Joseph E. Lambert announced he will retire June 27.

And the Frankfort rumor mill ground at full speed with speculation about who will succeed Lambert as chief justice and whether he will play a role in the process.

Senate President David L. Williams, R-Burkesville, acknowledged Friday that the Senate did not confirm the appointment of Jason Nemes to director of the Administrative Office of the Courts during the recently ended session of the General Assembly. Nemes' appointment was not put to a vote.

"He did not have the support to be confirmed," Williams said in a statement released by his spokeswoman.