Wikipedia:Featured article candidates/Bert T. Combs/archive1


 * The following is an archived discussion of a featured article nomination. Please do not modify it. Subsequent comments should be made on the article's talk page or in Wikipedia talk:Featured article candidates. No further edits should be made to this page.

The article was not promoted by SandyGeorgia 20:42, 25 January 2010.

Bert T. Combs

 * Nominator(s): Acdixon (talk • contribs • count) 15:59, 1 January 2010 (UTC)

Poor mountain boy becomes a war hero, comes home and gets nominated to the state's highest court, is plucked from obscurity to run for (and eventually win) the governorship, ends up on a federal court, and after all this, sues to overturn the state's whole educational system! Hope you enjoy reading this as much as I enjoyed researching/writing it. I look forward to addressing any concerns you have and seeing the article promoted to FA. Acdixon (talk • contribs • count) 15:59, 1 January 2010 (UTC)

oppose If he served as a federal judge, a PD portrait would have been made, and thus File:Bert_Combs.jpg fails nfcc criteria 1 Fasach Nua (talk) 20:15, 1 January 2010 (UTC)
 * The only thing I found was here, but there's no indication on this page that the portrait is PD. Additionally, the resolution is horrible, which leads me to believe it was intentionally scanned at low resolution because it is still covered by copyright. Acdixon (talk • contribs • count) 14:31, 2 January 2010 (UTC)
 * Did you look in box J? Fasach Nua (talk) 20:45, 2 January 2010 (UTC)
 * Unfortunately, that collection is located in Lexington, 3 hours away from me. I'm not sure they'd let me scan it if I were close enough to look. Acdixon (talk • contribs • count) 00:10, 9 January 2010 (UTC)
 * Note: This issue is under discussion at FfD. Acdixon (talk • contribs • count) 15:37, 25 January 2010 (UTC)


 * Comments
 * Is there a link to all PD federal judge portraits here on Wikipedia somewhere (see above)?
 * I haven't found such a thing, but I'm more than open to replacing the extant image with a free one if one can be located.
 * In refs but not notes: Saxon.
 * Corrected. I had the article and newspaper title in the note, but not the author's name.
 * I took the liberty of adding a Notes section. It looks much cleaner that way, and doesn't do great violence to the existing scheme. &bull; Ling.Nut 04:10, 2 January 2010 (UTC)
 * No problem. Some people prefer them together, some prefer them apart. Acdixon (talk • contribs • count) 14:31, 2 January 2010 (UTC)


 * on commons Fasach Nua (talk) 08:10, 2 January 2010 (UTC)
 * I don't see any pictures of Combs here or elsewhere on Commons, but I don't do much work at Commons, so I may have missed it. Acdixon (talk • contribs • count) 14:31, 2 January 2010 (UTC)


 * I don't think there is a picture of Combs on Commons, I would suggest a better source would be the US National Archives and Records Administration Fasach Nua (talk) 15:16, 2 January 2010 (UTC)
 * I've searched there as well, with no luck. Acdixon (talk • contribs • count) 18:46, 3 January 2010 (UTC)


 * Comments -
 * The Biographical directory ref needs a last access date
 * Otherwise, sources look okay, links checked out with the link checker tool. Ealdgyth - Talk 17:32, 6 January 2010 (UTC)
 * Done. Acdixon (talk • contribs • count) 00:10, 9 January 2010 (UTC)


 * Dabs; please check the disambiguation links identified in the toolbox. Dabomb87 (talk) 22:41, 8 January 2010 (UTC)
 * Removed the only dab link because it was to the wrong thing. Acdixon (talk • contribs • count) 00:10, 9 January 2010 (UTC)


 * Comments Good biography.
 * Seems wierd to provide a wikilink to "U.S. state" but not to "Kentucky".
 * Indeed. Oversight on my part. Fixed.


 * Something wrong in the following passage - missing full stop maybe? (Also do they really have elections for court bench positions???) "Later that year, he was elected to a full term on the court, defeating former governor Simeon S. Willis. Earle C. Clements, the leader of one faction of the state Democratic Party, chose Combs to challenge Clements' factional enemy A. B. "Happy" Chandler in the gubernatorial race of 1955".
 * I can't pinpoint the exact problem in this sentence, but since I wrote it, that may not be all that surprising. Nonetheless, I've reworded the second sentence to see if it reads better. And yes, Kentucky has an elected judiciary.


 * "Town Branch section" - the word "section" seems odd here - do you mean district or suburb?
 * I believe that's what it means. The exact quote from the source article reads as follows: "Bert Thomas Combs was born Aug. 13, 1911, in the Town Branch section of Manchester, one of seven children of Stephen and Martha Jones Combs." Manchester is a good four hours at least from me, so I don't know much about how it may or may not be subdivided.


 * "Combs started a class for individuals with mental retardation in Floyd County, in part so Tommy could attend the class" - just seems slightly strange, as Combs was a lawyer, not a teacher - the use of the word "class" suggests at a school. Do we know anything about this - was it at home or elsewhere?
 * I wish I did; I think Combs' concern for his son is an interesting subplot to his life. Again, quoting the source article: "He also began to show a concern for the needy, helping to start a class for mentally retarded children in Floyd County. Mr. Combs' son, Tommy, was retarded. Mr. Combs' daughter, Lois Combs Weinberg, said her father started the class so that Tommy could be educated."


 * "Combs represented coal companies in worker's compensation cases against Carl D. Perkins, later a U.S. Representative". This needs some explanation - why would a coal company need to be represented in a workers comp case against one particular individual? Very strange.
 * Actually, Perkins was frequently the lawyer for the workers, while Combs was the lawyer for the company. I've tried to clarify this.

More another time. hamiltonstone (talk) 22:37, 21 January 2010 (UTC)
 * Is any explanation offfered in the sources for why the constitutional ballot was defeated?
 * The only explanation seems to be that the voters didn't see the need for the new constitution and were fiercely resistant to change. I think the adage "The devil you know is better than the devil you don't" may best reflect this sentiment. According to Pearce's Divide and Dissent, Combs' lieutenant governor, Edward T. Breathitt, believed the people wanted to see the proposed new constitution before they voted to scrap the old one. Combs disagreed, and was later proven right. After Breathitt succeeded Combs as governor, he assembled a team to draft a new constitution, then called for another constitutional referendum. It got hammered at the polls by almost a 5-to-1 margin. Not surprisingly, the 1891 constitution is still in effect in Kentucky today, although a few of the more onerous parts were amended in 1992.


 * "This vote was the closest Kentucky has come to revising the 1891 constitution, which remains in effect today." Well, that is referenced to a book now 23 years old. I don't think that's "today". Need a link to the current constitution that states that it is in the format of 1891 etc.
 * I suppose that claim was based on a bit of local knowledge on my part. I've provided another reference that should suffice.


 * "Thereafter, he worked against Combs at every opportunity, even joining with Happy Chandler to ensure Wilson Wyatt's defeat in his 1962 race for the Senate" - i wonder if one should remind the reader at this point that Clements had once promised Wyatt future support, so this represented a reversal of that promise?
 * I had hoped the reader would remember this, but I have no problem adding the reminder, as I have just done.


 * "the assessment of state employees for political campaign funds" I don't know what this means.
 * I was hoping the word "assessment" would be common enough that this wouldn't be a problem, but I feared it wouldn't be. I'm not quite sure how to reword it. Basically, it means that the governor charged state workers a percentage of their income and applied it to his campaign war chest. I have a hard time believing this was ever legal, but obviously, it was. Can you suggest a means of conveying this meaning without making the sentence terribly awkward?


 * The way this is written, i assume Kentucky has or had a bar on governors running for a second consecutive term. Perhaps this should be pointed out early in the piece, as it helps make the political processes, particularly the emphasis on selecting successors etc, make a bit more sense.
 * Yes, this was one of those things we finally fixed with the constitutional amendments of 1992. I've done so many of these governor articles that I forget where I've mentioned the prohibition and where I haven't. I've reworded a sentence to include this fact.

The text appears adequately referenced and the writing I found readable and interesting. Most links seem OK, but i thought there was some overlinking which i have amended. Others may disagree. I'm a support if the above points are addressed. hamiltonstone (talk) 02:40, 22 January 2010 (UTC)
 * Thanks for your review and for your patience (I was out of town this weekend). There is still one open issue above where I need a little help/advice. I hope I have adequately addressed the others; let me know if this is not the case. I will be pleased to have your support once I am able to address all your concerns. Acdixon (talk • contribs • count) 13:26, 25 January 2010 (UTC)
 * The above discussion is preserved as an archive. Please do not modify it. No further edits should be made to this page.