Ky. race turns as whispers grow louder

[Jon8503]

By Andrea Stone, USA TODAY
LOUISVILLE — Jim Bunning stepped up to a Rotary Club lectern here Thursday to notch a save in a campaign that was on no one's lineup card of competitive Senate races a few weeks ago. But thanks to growing speculation about his mental fitness, Kentucky now has one of the more interesting campaigns in the country.

Republican Sen. Jim Bunning, left, makes a stop on the campaign trail at the Rotary Club of Louisville.
by Keith Williams, Louisville Courier-Journal, via AP

"Reports of my demise are greatly exaggerated," the one-term Republican senator said. "I can still walk, talk and chew gum at the same time."

But can the Hall of Fame pitcher, who turns 73 Saturday, dispel talk in the state that he may not be up to the job? Such whispers have gotten louder in recent weeks as news media in Kentucky and beyond have pointed to a series of odd statements and actions by Bunning.

"Absurd," says Bunning's Kentucky colleague, Senate Majority Whip Mitch McConnell. "To suggest that the tall right-hander is somehow not up to a full nine innings or is losing his stuff, well, I'm here to tell you that the last thing you want to do would be to turn this job over to some lefty who's been playing in the minor leagues over in Frankfort."

That would be Democrat Daniel Mongiardo, 44, a two-term state legislator and surgeon from the state's coal mining region. The grandson of Italian immigrants who settled in Appalachia a century ago, he became the Democratic candidate after a scandal sidelined former governor Paul Patton.

Bunning caused a stir last spring when he told a GOP gathering that Mongiardo, who has dark hair and is olive-skinned, looked and dressed like one of Saddam Hussein's sons. He apologized last week, but the damage was already done. Mongiardo accuses Bunning of a "negative smear campaign to make me look like a foreigner. I was born on the Fourth of July in Hazard, Kentucky. You can't get more American."

This summer Bunning, whose prickly personality often puts him at odds with reporters, told a Paducah TV station that he needed a large police detail to protect him from a possible al-Qaeda attack. "There may be strangers among us," he said.

And two months after attending a popular political gathering, he accused Mongiardo's staff of roughing up his wife, Mary, there. He said she was jostled "black and blue." Mongiardo denied the charge.

http://www.usatoday.com/news/politicselections/state/kentucky/2004-10-21-ky-senate-usat_x.htm

[Warpy]

1. Bunning is GOP as usual, rich and stupid

and easily led by the boys in the back room.

I don't know why the news that he's suffering from mild dementia should come as a shock to anyone.

[jarab]

2. "Mild dementia" is being generous based on recent events. eom

...O...

[Lefty48197]

3. Bunning has lost his mind, and we're going to take his seat.

Thank you Republicans for always failing to recognize when you have a weak candidate, and for being too afraid to replace them (sound familiar?)

[fob]

4. I've got a sure fire way to protect yourself from "strangers among us",

Jim.

Resign.

A "former" Senator is a much less likely target than a current sitting Senator.

[Gothmog]

5. The man is a nutcase and has lost it

The fact that he used a teleprompter for his one debate is evidence of that. Maybe steroid abuse has caught up with him.

[Moderator]

6. Jon 8503

Per DU copyright rules
please post only four
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Thank you.

DU Moderator

[Fridays Child]

7. KY voters: If you think Bunning is strange, let me tell you about a guy...

...named B*sh who thinks he's an agent of God.