Archive for the 'Jim Bunning' Category

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Jim Pence August 14th, 2008

Is Barack Obama Considering Steve Beshear For Vice President?

Jim Pence August 4th, 2008

After listening to Steve Beshear’s speech at Fancy Farm I came away with the feeling that Steve Beshear might be on Barack Obama’s list for Vice President. I know this is just a gut feeling, but watch this video and you decide.
I also had the opportunity to ask Crit Luallen if she was going to run for the Senate in 2010 and she told me she was considering it. Click here to see her speaking.
I hope she does, because I really believe Crit can defeat Senator Jim "Green Doctor " Bunning.

Senator Mitch McConnell’s Best Friend, George Bush Shows His Contempt For Seniors And The Military With His Veto Pen!!

Jim Pence July 15th, 2008

President Bush vetoed a bill blocking Medicare and Tricare pay cuts to doctors, but congress tells him to go to Hell and overrides the veto. The House of Representatives voted overwhelmingly by a 383-41 vote to override President Bush’s veto and the Senate vote was 70-26 .
Senators Mitch McConnell and Jim Bunning continued to show their disdain for seniors and the military and voted to uphold the George Bush’ veto!
This time next year I hope George W. Bush is living on his 100,000 acres in Paraguay because he won’t be welcomed here in the United States by seniors like me! He can hire Blackwater to protect him from the International Courts that will surely indict him for crimes against humanity , and George will find a good supply of cocaine in Paraguay to sniff up his nose and plenty of room to go hunting with "Shotgun" Dick Cheney!
I can’t wait!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

John McCain Is A No Show For Veterans. Senators Mitch McConnell And Jim Bunning Cut And Run From The Troops, Stand Up For George W. Bush And Vote Against The 21st Century G.I. Bill!!!

Jim Pence May 22nd, 2008

Senator John McCain was a no show. Mitch McConnell and Jim Bunning cut and ran from the troops and voted against the 21st Century G.I. Bill!!! These 3 senators have terrible ratings when it comes to Iraq and Afghanistan veterans.

According to Time Magazine:
This is not the first time McCain, who has a proud history of opposing what he views as excessive government spending, has found himself at odds with his fellow veterans on legislation. He’s voted for veterans funding bills only 30% of the time, according to a scorecard of roll-call votes put out by the nonpartisan Disabled Americans for America. Under the same system Obama has a 90% rating — though, of course, he has spent a much shorter time in Washington.
“Senator McCain clearly needs to be recognized for his military service and in some respects that will play to his advantage, but when it actually comes to delivering health care and benefits during war, Senator McCain’s going to have some explaining to do,” said Paul Sullivan, director of the nonpartisan Veterans for Common Sense.


Project Vote Smart Ratings Of Senators John McCain, Barack Obama, Hillary Clinton, Mitch McConnell and Jim Bunning.
“The mission of Iraq and Afghanistan Veterans of America is to ensure the enactment of policies that properly provide for our Troops & Veterans, keep our military strong, and guarantee our national security for the purpose of a stronger America. We uniquely empower Iraq & Afghanistan combat veterans to use their credibility and experiences to speak truth to power, shape public opinion, and place a priority on these issues.”

Name
John McCain
Barack Obama
Hillary Clinton
Mitch McConnell
Jim Bunning 		Rating
D
B+
A-
D
D-

Quick Hit: It’s Their Nature

Terri Whitehouse April 15th, 2008

There’s an excellent post by Pam Spaulding about a racist comment that Rep. Geoff Davis made at an event in which Sen. Mitch McConnell also gave the world the opportunity to see just how low class the Kentucky GOP can be. I can’t remember where I read it, but my favorite defense of Davis’s racist remark so far is that he was hopefully just drunk. Desperate measures, indeed.

Geoff Davis Calls Barack Obama Boy!!

Jim Pence April 14th, 2008

Pol Watchers
Republican U.S. Sens. Mitch McConnell and Jim Bunning laid out their case for Republicans keeping control of the White House in the 2008 election during Northern Kentucky’s 4th Congressional District Lincoln Day Dinner Saturday night.
McConnell, who is also up for re-election in November, defended the Bush administration’s decision “to go on offense” by invading Iraq. And he said presumptive GOP presidential nominee, U.S. Sen. John McCain of Arizona, has the right perspective on what must be done in the Middle East, as opposed to the two Democratic candidates who favor removing U.S. troops as soon as possible.
“We’d be kidding ourselves,” McConnell said. “This is a different kind of war. The enemy is not a country, it’s a movement … There’s nobody to negotiate with.”
Bunning used an even harsher description.
“The people we’re fighting against now are worse than Adolf Hitler and Nazis. And we don’t know where they live, half of them,” Bunning said.

Well Senator McConnell and Limp Dick Bunning, it’s not the terrorist kicking folks out of their homes, outsourcing their job, making education unaffordable and etc etc etc. It’s you and your right wing neocon policies.

Pol Watchers
U.S. Rep. Geoff Davis, a Hebron Republican, compared Obama and his message for change similar to a “snake oil salesman.”
He said in his remarks at the GOP dinner that he also recently participated in a “highly classified, national security simulation” with Obama.
“I’m going to tell you something: That boy’s finger does not need to be on the button,” Davis said. “He could not make a decision in that simulation that related to a nuclear threat to this country.”

Geoff Davis, I’m here to tell you that calling a grown black man “boy” will get you a real good ass whippin’ where I come from. Mr. Davis sir, I hope you call Barack Obama “boy” to his face, because I’m looking forward to seeing you with a black eye and a fat lip.

Hal Rogers Brings Home the Bacon

Terri Whitehouse December 18th, 2007

The good folk at the Sunlight Foundation have highlighted earmarks by Rep. Harold Rogers:

After it hired a lobbyist and its employees’ contributed to a member of Congress’ leadership political action committee, a Kentucky company saw its defense business quadruple thanks to earmarks.

Over the last three years, Rep. Harold Rogers, R-Ky., says he has earmarked at least $10.4 million in defense funds for Phoenix Products, Inc., a small company in McKee, Ky., that makes aircraft accessories, including custom V.I.P. interiors for Black Hawk helicopters that “offer the finest leather,” fabric, naugahyde and carpet, according to the firm’s Web site.

In 2006, Phoenix added Kentucky-based McCarthy & Speaks Strategic Solution, a lobbying firm that has strong connections with Rogers, to its Capitol Hill representation. Partner Jeff Speaks worked in Rogers’ congressional office as projects director for 10 years, according to the firm’s Web site; Speaks represented Phoenix Products, the firm’s lobbying disclosure forms show. The other partner, John T. McCarthy III, was the chairman of the Kentucky state Republican Party.

Since 2004, Martin, Fisher, Thompson and Associates and McCarthy & Speaks Strategic Solution Phoenix Products have reported that Phoenix Products has paid them more than $240,000 to lobby on its behalf.

During that same time period, the firm’s employees have given $12,400 to Rogers’s campaign and have been contributors to his leadership PAC as well. In 2007, Peggy Wilson and Thomas Wilson each made $1,500 donations to Rogers’s leadership PAC, Help America’s Leaders (HALPAC); their first campaign donations to HALPAC came in 2004, Federal Election Commission records show. They’ve also contributed to other members of the Kentucky delegation including Sen. Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) and Sen. Jim Bunning (R-Ky.).

Must be nice in that ivory tower!

Quick Hit: Bunning Retiring?

Terri Whitehouse December 3rd, 2007

Per KYPolitics.org, it’s likely:

Sources are confirming what most Washington political insiders have long expected: U.S. Sen. Jim Bunning is leaning towards retirement and contemplating backing a potential successor.

This is the first overt indication that Bunning, 76, plans on making this term his last in D.C. Previously, Bunning had publicly indicated he would run for a third term.

UPDATE: Bunning fully intends to run in ‘10:

“Brett Hall is a liar,” Bunning said in a conference call with Kentucky political reporters.

OUCH!

Moser: Kentucky at War

Matt Gunterman September 13th, 2007

The Nation Cover “Kentucky at War”

Bob Moser’s excellent analysis of the development of the movement to support the troops, end the war, and ditch Senator Mitch McConnell (R) has hit the stands.

The piece is too long to block quote here, but I’ll include excerpts particularly relevant to the Kentucky progressive blogosphere. You can read the entire article here.

Kentucky at War
Bob Moser

[...]

As summer–and McConnell’s recess vacation–approached, two new sets of nontraditional allies materialized to help LPAC bird-dog the senator, who makes his home in Louisville with his wife, Labor Secretary Elaine Chao. Matt Gunterman, a 30-year-old rural Kentucky native and Yale University graduate student, launched the DitchMitch blog earlier in the year, bringing together a varied band of bloggers from around the state on a composite site with a common goal. And in June, two young native Kentuckians and a Navy veteran opened an Iraq Summer headquarters in Louisville, part of a national campaign by Americans Against Escalation in Iraq (AAEI) to target key members of Congress with a homegrown antiwar message before they returned to Washington to resume the war debate.

By mid-August McConnell was sending out fundraising letters complaining about being harassed by “the ’60s antiwar movement on steroids.” But as the Republican kingmaker well knew, the reality was something altogether different from that old stereotype–and considerably more formidable.

Jim Pence is a 68-year-old, Salem-smoking, pickup-driving, self-proclaimed hillbilly from economically devastated Hardin County, retired after thirty-five years in the factory at the American Synthetic Rubber Corporation. Politically inactive until 2004, when Bush’s re-election and the war in Iraq spurred him to “vow to fight with every ounce of my strength from then on,” Pence now makes some of the freshest, funniest antiwar and political videos anywhere–and as a result, he’s become the unlikely heart and soul of Kentucky’s DitchMitch campaign.

Linking from his own Hillbilly Report website to DitchMitch and YouTube, Pence puts up snappy vignettes on subjects ranging from Kentucky’s annual bipartisan political hoedown at Fancy Farm–where McConnell made a hasty exit this year after being jeered by protesters carrying signs showing him as Bush’s hand puppet–to a fanciful take on Bush and Condoleezza Rice’s relationship, set to the tune of Frank Sinatra’s “The Way You Look Tonight,” to a hard-hitting series of exposés of liquor-industry fundraising by Ron Lewis, the holy-rolling Congressman from Pence’s district. “I don’t know, I just disappear into them,” Pence says on a dog-day August morning, navigating Louisville traffic en route to the Iraq Summer office. “I stay up some nights till 4 and 5, editing these things.”

DitchMitch creator Gunterman, whose postgraduate goal is to fire up an Internet-based “Ruralution,” connecting grassroots progressives from rural America to spur political action, sees Pence as a prime example of the passion and wit that generally go untapped by Democrats and urban progressives. “There’s no one like Jim in the entire United States,” says Gunterman. “Not with his age and his ornery attitude. He is very much a hillbilly, and he’s reinvigorated the term.”

In his three years of crisscrossing Kentucky to publicize its antiwar and progressive insurgencies, Pence has also stirred up the state’s traditionally timid left-wingers. “When I first went out with my camcorder, I’d go up to people at peace rallies and ask them, ‘Would you like to say something to Mitch?’ and they’d just go, ‘Uhhh…’ Or even if they would say anything, they’d say, ‘But I don’t want my picture taken.’ I just kept saying, ‘The newspaper’s not even going to cover this, and if TV does, it’ll be for ten seconds. Whereas this video’s going up on YouTube tomorrow.’” As Pence kept filming and posting his increasingly popular videos, the activists opened up and embraced this new mechanism for showing that, yes, the military stronghold of Kentucky has a vigorous antiwar effort. “People are stepping out more than they would a few years ago,” Pence says. “Now I can’t get them to stop talking when they see that camera. People know me now, and for the most part they trust me–whether or not they should!”

While Pence and DitchMitch have inspirited Kentucky activists, they’ve also pushed the state’s more established media to take notice of the progressive groundswell. “DitchMitch gives us the power to hold the media accountable in Kentucky for the first time,” says 24-year-old Shawn Dixon, a native of rural western Kentucky who’s just started his first year at NYU law school. In 2004, when Dixon was working as deputy policy and communications director for Democrat Daniel Mongiardo’s uphill Senate challenge to Republican Jim Bunning, he spent much of the campaign in a state of frustration over Kentucky newspapers’ assumption that the incumbent would cruise to victory. “There was no recognition that this would be a competitive election and that this guy was beatable until about a month before the election, when it became impossible to ignore.” Bunning wobbled back to Washington with a slender 23,000-vote victory, but this time around, with LPAC continually raising eyebrows and DitchMitch helping to popularize the anti-McConnell movement, “the media don’t have a choice,” Dixon says. On the same day in late July that Louisville’s Courier-Journal ran a column about McConnell’s dip in popularity (below 50 percent approval), the Herald-Leader in Lexington ran a story, sixteen months before the election, titled “McConnell Vulnerable.”

That’s music to Pence’s ears. “It’s not just what he’s done to perpetuate this war,” says the high-tech hillbilly. “It’s what he hasn’t done for Kentuckians, with all his power, on healthcare and so many other issues that really matter to folks at their kitchen tables. We’re trying to cut through the kind of moral-values crap that McConnell’s been using for twenty-five years to get himself elected. We’re doing what we can to show the emperors without their clothes. And show that the folks who don’t like Mitch, and can’t stand this war, are just regular people like me who finally woke up and spoke up.”

[...]

The Strange Priorities of corners of the Kentucky press

Matt Gunterman September 11th, 2007

Let’s see.

Senators Mitch McConnell (R) and Jim Bunning (R) introduce legislation to dismantle and privatize the Tennessee Valley Authority in a move that would directly affect the quality of life for tens of thousands of Kentucky families.

McConnell has received substantial sums of money from energy special interests; the entire effort on his part fits into his usual pattern of pay-for-pay politics. Republican senators from affected areas of the South vow to defeat McConnell’s initiative, and editorial boards throughout the region denounce it. In short, this story has drama and conflict.

What coverage does the move get in the Kentucky press?

Pretty much zip, zilch, nada, [chirp, chirp].

What sort of stories are the Kentucky press interested in when it comes to McConnell and Bunning?

Their collective denouncement of a newspaper ad that ran this weekend in the New York Times.

Priorities, priorities.

What’s McConnell Got to Say About This?

Terri Whitehouse September 9th, 2007

DM-KY reader Dee brought something to my attention that had flown under my radar in the past weeks. Via e-mail, she shared with me a letter she’d sent to Sen. Mitch McConnell recently, asking for his reaction to this article:

For daring to report illegal arms sales, Navy veteran Donald Vance says he was imprisoned by the American military in a security compound outside Baghdad and subjected to harsh interrogation methods.

…

For his trouble, he says, he got 97 days in Camp Cropper, an American military prison outside Baghdad that once held Saddam Hussein, and he was classified a security detainee.

Also held was colleague Nathan Ertel, who helped Vance gather evidence documenting the sales, according to a federal lawsuit both have filed in Chicago, alleging they were illegally imprisoned and subjected to physical and mental interrogation tactics “reserved for terrorists and so-called enemy combatants.”

If you’d also like a response from our senators about the reprehensible actions taken against these men and women, please contact them at the following locations:

Sen. Mitch McConnell
361-A Russell Senate Office Building
Washington, DC 20510
Phone: (202) 224-2541

Sen. Jim Bunning
316 Hart Senate Office Building
Washington, DC 20510
Phone: (202) 224-4343

To contact our senators at their regional offices, please refer to their websites.

Senator Mitch McConnell seeks to undermine New Deal legacy of his “hero” Alben W. Barkley

Matt Gunterman August 24th, 2007

Mitch McConnell hates poor people and will dismantle TVA

As of late, Senator Mitch McConnell has been comparing himself to the late Senator Alben W. Barkley, who served Kentucky in the chamber for over two decades, was Majority Leader, and vice president to President Harry Truman.

McConnell says that Barkley was a hero, and Barkley was a hero. Yet, McConnell thinks that Barkley was a hero because he was leader of his party in the Senate and because he had lots of power. McConnell likes to make the comparison and rationalize Barkley’s hero status in such a way because McConnell himself leads his party in the Senate and has a lot of power.

McConnell has it wrong, however..

Barkley was a hero not because of the power that he had, but because of what he did for common Kentuckians and Americans with that power. Barkley fought hard to defend the New Deal (and his defense of it nearly cost him an election once).

Compare Barkley to McConnell, whose political career has been built at the expense of the common people and who has used his power to undermine the very New Deal institutions that Barkley worked so hard to defend.

McConnell’s most grievous offense to Barkley’s legacy? It is his latest attempt to dismantle the Tennessee Valley Authority; there just happens to be a body of water in TVA’s territory named Lake Barkley, after all.

From Alabama’s Times Daily:

Aug 18, 2007
TVA, again

THE ISSUE
Another effort is afoot in Congress to privatize the Tennessee Valley Authority, though evidence strongly suggests doing so would raise everyone’s electric rates.

It’s become an annual event, it seems. Someone in Congress wants to dismantle the New Deal-era Tennessee Valley Authority in the name of competition and cheaper electricity rates.

This year, it’s Kentucky’s Republican senators - Mitch McConnell and Jim Bunning - who want to allow private utilities to sell power within the restricted TVA service area. It’s another in a long line of bad ideas to dismantle the federal agency.

McConnell’s and Bunning’s bill, called the Access to Competitive Power Act of 2007, would establish equal access and treatment with respect to federal power sources. A provision of the bill also calls for a study of privatizating TVA. If the bill were to win approval - and that appears to be unlikely - TVA would be forced to allow other power distributors to use its transmision lines to sell electricity to customers within the Tennessee Valley.

Bunning said lowering the TVA “fence” would allow Kentucky residents access to cheaper power from outside sources.

But that would not be a competitive advantage for TVA. In fact, most TVA power distributors - including those in the Shoals - say allowing private utilities to sell power in the valley would raise rates for everyone and hurt the region’s ability to compete for jobs.

One area TVA power distributor - Russellville - even considered leaving the TVA system but found no advantage in doing so. Steve Defoor, manager of the Russellville Electric Board, said the city was part of a group that studied buying power from another source. “We spent six months checking prices and never could beat TVA,” he said.

Richard Morrissey, manager of the Florence Electricity Department, best put into focus the dangers of privatizing TVA. He said if investor-owned utilities were allowed to sell power in the valley, they would “cherry pick” the most lucrative customers, leaving TVA with remote rural customers who are more expensive to serve. “If that were to happen, our rates would go up,” he said.

Fortunately, there is no House companion bill for McConnell’s and Bunning’s bill, so it’s not likely to find its way out of a Senate committee.

Now, if Congress really wants to do something for TVA, it would forgive the debt the agency had in the 1950s when the agency was required to become a self-sufficient power provider. That would not eliminate all its debt, but it would help TVA operate more efficiently.

By the way, it’s quite clear that Mitch McConnell will never serve as Majority Leader of the Senate. First, after the thumping Republicans will take in 2008, it will require several election cycles for the GOP to win back the chamber even if they do somehow manage to get their act together. Second, for the Republicans to get their act together, they’ll have to clean house with their leadership and change their wayward ways. McConnell IS the father of the culture of corruption and hyper-partisanship that are rocking the national and state GOP and has paralyzed our nation’s institution’s of government. He will have to go. McConnell will never be Majority Leader, and he will–in the end–inherit the wretched legacy of deceit and fecklessness that he deserves.

SENATOR JIM BUNNING AND THE LITTLE GREEN DOCTOR YOUTUBE VIDEO

Jim Pence August 10th, 2007

T.G.I.F.

Terri Whitehouse August 3rd, 2007

The DM-KY team has a jam-packed weekend, and while I won’t be attendance at Fancy Farm, my posting, too, will be sporadic. Don’t let that stop you from checking in, though, as I know that I am looking forward to hearing about YearlyKos and Fancy Farm from some of my favorite bloggers. (I’m not just saying that, I promise.)

To kick things off, check out Sam Youngman’s national coverage of Kentucky’s governor’s race and the impact it will have on the 2008 U.S. Senate campaign. I think all this interest will make for a very interesting picnic!

Reviews Are In: Stumbo A Solid Candidate

Shawn Dixon July 25th, 2007

The reviews from national media and blogs are pouring in after Greg Stumbo’s announcement of a possible run against McConnell. They all are quite similar: Stumbo is a formidable opponent to Senator Mitch McConnell and should he run, this would be a very competitive race.

The national media picking up on McConnell’s vulnerability in next year this early in the election cycle is an extremely bad sign for the Senate Minority Leader. First, it helps to destruct the idea that McConnell is somehow unbeatable and will energize voters who are tired of his unabashed support of Bush’s disasterous policy. Second, usually the national media only reports on an incumbent candidate’s vulnerability after a defeat or extremely close race is already certain. In fact, while working forDaniel Mongiardo’s bid for Senate in 2004, we all knew the bid to defeat Jim Bunning was going to be very close months before the national media would even give us the time of day.

From Chris Cilliza at WaPo:

This race has potential despite McConnell’s significant political chops and fundraising capacity.

MSNBC highlights McConnell’s woes:

McConnell, in his fifth term, has taken heat from all sides for sticking with President Bush on Iraq and initially on immigration — before he ultimately voted against the measure. Stumbo will likely look to capitalize particularly on immigration in the conservative state.

Jim Bunning: Kentuckians “totally and completely out of control,” just like the Republican war in Iraq

Matt Gunterman July 24th, 2007

I have to say that I laughed when I read Larry Dale Keeling’s column today in the Herald-Leader on Senator Jim Bunning and his refusal to attend Fancy Farm now and forever because it’s just so gosh dern dangerous down there in western Kentucky.

Really. It’s sad. How can a person, especially a war-on-terror Republican ever imagine that he could win reelection, especially when his approval/disapproval rating is 44/45 percent, when he’s frightened of his own citizenry? Of course, they say that people suffering from dementia and Alzheimer’s do get paranoid towards the end. And I don’t think anyone expects Bunning to have much chance at reelection, quite frankly.

Here’s the column:

Safe at Fancy Farm

The Fancy Farm Picnic is many things. It’s a pig-out on barbecue and fresh veggies and homemade desserts. It’s bingo and country music. It’s hot — really, really hot some years. It’s a Kentucky tradition. It’s great political theater spiced with old-fashioned speechifying before a crowd of partisans who can get, well, a little raucous at times.

But dangerous for the speakers?

I don’t think so.

However, U.S. Sen. Jim Bunning apparently does think so.

During a conference call with Kentucky reporters last week, Bunning said, “I’m not sure I’ll ever go back” to the picnic because of the abuse he claims his wife and he received there in 2004.

Complaining about a lack of security and the heckling of speakers, Bunning described the event as “totally and completely out of control.”

As I said, the crowds can be raucous. But “totally and completely out of control” is a gross overstatement of their behavior. Besides, the worst of the heckling often comes from people bused in for that purpose by the two political parties or the campaigns of politicians who are up for election in a given year.

In other words, the speakers can’t truly be described as innocent victims mistreated by mobs. They are part and parcel of a show that the speakers and their parties have helped orchestrate.

Still, I’m not surprised Bunning would find an excuse to avoid the hoi polloi at Fancy Farm. After all, he is the guy who used al-Qaida as an excuse to have state police protection during his last campaign and who insisted on rules for a televised debate that allowed him to participate from seclusion in Washington, D.C., rather than meet his opponent in front of TV cameras in Lexington.

Sounds like the guy who spent 17 years facing Major League batters now shies away from face-to-face confrontations with opponents and the public.

Well, That Was a No-Brainer

Terri Whitehouse June 21st, 2007

How’s this for an obvious headline: “Senate Republicans block tax hikes for big oil companies”? Meanwhile, Senators Mitch McConnell and Jim Bunning are wanting to funnel more money to Peabody Energy.

Is Mitch McConnell Losing Control of His Party?

Shawn Dixon June 7th, 2007

It’s no secret that since Mitch McConnell took his post as minority leader the Republicans in the Senate have become the most divided they have been in years. The issue of immigration is only causing a deeper rift between Senate Republicans and their leader.

Not only is there a grassroots effort by KY Republicans to replace McConnell in the primary election next year, but I read a conservative blog this week that asked its readers if they thought McConnell should step down for his support of the immigration bill. (92% of readers said “yes”). Even the National Republican Senatorial Committee blog last week highlighted intra-party fighting by posting videos of McConnell arguing for immigration reform directly next to Senator Kay Bailey Hutchison of Texas arguing against the bill. (That link has now been taken down – probably after the party realized it was a bad idea to undercut the minority leader or maybe McConnell complained)?

Need more proof of McConnell’s failed leadership? He can’t even get his other Kentucky colleague Senator Jim Bunning to support the immigration bill. In fact, not only does Bunning not support the bill, he is actively opposing it and was one of four senators responsible for killing the bill last night.

The point here is this: Mitch McConnell will tell spend the next year and a half telling you that the state can’t afford to lose his power. That’s simply not true. The Mitch McConnell Empire is crumbling here at home and on a national level. Kentuckians can’t afford to keep this ineffective leader in power. If he can’t lead members of his own party, he sure can’t lead for all of Kentucky.

Runnin’ on Fumes: McConnell Quick Hits

Terri Whitehouse May 24th, 2007

Well, fumes, Red Bull, and Diet Coke, and Citrus Drop, that is. A lot have things have flown under my radar as I am entering my very last week of school before graduation. My sincere apologies.

Senator Mitch McConnell has introduced an amendment requiring a government-issued photo I.D. be shown in order to vote in any federal election. Of course, this proposed amendment makes no such provision for absentee ballots, which is how most voter fraud is committed, if I’m not mistaken. Read the long-winded press release from Sen. McConnell if you’re up to it. Does anyone else wonder if this is his passive-aggressive way to vote down the immigration bill without having to vote it down?

Sen. McConnell also introduced a bill called the the “Stop Over-Spending Act.” I like it. Simple. Forceful. Imperative. Just rolls off the tongue, doesn’t it? Our senator then goes on to talk about Dems’ willful disregard for the economy and what have you. The press release is available here.

President George W. Bush nominated U.S. Attorney Amul Thapar for a post as Federal Judge U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Kentucky.

Discuss at will and please comment if I’ve missed anything else, as I’m sure I have. I’ve been looking at glaring screen and printed material for 14 hours or so, time to uncross my eyes.

Zombie Jim Bunning rises again; seeks brains on Iraq war

Matt Gunterman May 7th, 2007

Today in the C-J, we have a special treat: Senator Jim Bunning — or Zombie Bunning, as the geriatric, dementia-afflicted junior senator of Kentucky is more disaffectionately known — writes some zombie thoughts on the war in Iraq.

It seems that zombies are squarely on the side of the Bush administration: go figure! Here’s the lede paragraph of the editorial that earned the name “The War is Not Lost”:

We are at war. Though it may be difficult to realize that sobering reality if you pay too much attention to the debate in our nation’s capital. A lot of politicians these days like to debate whether we should have taken out Saddam Hussein. There is a lot of talk about the lack of weapons of mass destruction we all thought were there. Many people argue we should have had a better plan or more troops on the ground. And so on. As important as these discussions may be, they should not be confused with changing the situation on the ground in Iraq today.

If zombie Gunterman had penned the piece, he might have written it this way:

The Bush administration is at war with reality. And you could certainly see that in the debate in the nation’s capital when the Republicans were in control. There was the anti-science agenda that that Republican congress advanced, where a brain-dead woman was diagnosed as a virtual trapeze artist by the then Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist, all via tele-presence.

And there was — and unfortunately still is — the Republican effort to stop life-saving stem cell research on the crazy belief that an embryo, frozen in liquid nitrogen and which no-one wants, is a person (talk about hell on earth). There was — and again sadly is — the Republicans’ continued denial of climate change.

On the non-science front, the Bush administration and Republican congress waged war on reality by spending $500,000,000,000 on the war in Iraq while offering the rich in the nation extravagant tax cuts.

And, most of all, the Bush administration and Republicans are waging war against reality by refusing to admit what’s really happening on the ground in Iraq.

The most telling sign of that denial of reality, for me, in Bunning’s article is his pinpointing of the “enemy” there. He says it’s Al Qaeda.

If we rid all of Iraq of all of Al Qaeda tomorrow, would there still be a civil war going on there the next day? Yes.

Would American troops have to still remain there to stabilize the nation of Iraq? Yes.

Would American troops still die? Yes.

That’s the reality of Bush and the Republicans’ war in Iraq.

Herald-Leader: Sen. Mitch McConnell an embarrassment

Matt Gunterman May 2nd, 2007

An editorial in today’s Herald-Leader calls out Senators Mitch McConnell and Jim Bunning for their roles in preventing increased transparency in campaign financing.

Voters ill-served by stalling electronic filing bill

Kentuckians have had prominent roles in the U.S. Senate’s embarrassing stall of long-delayed financial disclosure legislation.

Republican Mitch McConnell, the Senate minority leader, has not allowed a vote on Senate Bill 223, which requires campaign and other public financial documents to be filed electronically.

It’s the same rule that House lawmakers and candidates and presidential candidates must follow. It’s also a proposal that that has broad bipartisan support. But an anonymous senator has prevented a vote on the issue.

Sen. Jim Bunning, R-Ky., served as Senator X’s proxy last week, objecting to a vote on the legislation that makes information more accessible and saves taxpayers the cost of transferring information from paper documents.

It’s difficult to see the blocking strategy as anything but another of those too-clever maneuvers that serve only to undermine public support for Congress.

McConnell says he will give the name of the objecting senator when the Democrats schedule the bill for a full House debate.

Democrats want the bipartisan bill approved without a floor debate to avoid efforts to kill it by attaching “poison pill” amendments.

One likely amendment, which McConnell supports, would allow more coordination between political parties and individual campaigns, which often leads to more negative attack ads.

McConnell has been hostile to campaign finance reform, and as GOP Senate leader, he looks for ways to assert his party’s clout.

Yet, it’s hard to fathom how it helps McConnell, the GOP or Bunning to be seen as unwilling for the Senate to use 21st century tools to provide voters information about those who want to represent us.

S. 223 Blocked Again: This Time By Senator Jim Bunning

Terri Whitehouse April 26th, 2007

Nisha Thompson, Outreach Coordinator for the Sunlight Foundation was kind enough to leave another comment in this post:

Update: Sens. Feinstein and Feingold tried to reintroduce S. 223 today. Another anonymous objection by the Republican senators was raised. So please call you Senators and ask if they object this bill!

More about Sen. Bunning’s objection on behalf of his party can be found here. Please continue to call our Senators’ offices asking about this matter.

And Senators, if you’re reading this: if you can’t take the heat, stay the hell out the kitchen! Your numbers are only going to continue to plummet after this little episode!

McConnell at 53 percent approval, 40 percent disapproval

Matt Gunterman April 24th, 2007

The forthcoming SUSA tracking poll of Republican Senator Mitch McConnell’s popularity will show a slight up-tick during April [March: App (49 percent), Dis (43 percent); April: App (53 percent), Dis (40 percent)], and after having analyzed the numbers, I can tell you what the dynamic is: there’s a gender gap that developed in the last month.

In March:
Male: Approve (51 percent); Disapprove (41 percent)
Female: Approve (48 percent); Disapprove (44 percent)

Now watch what happens.

In April:
Male: Approve (59 percent); Disapprove (35 percent)
Female: Approve (47 percent); Disapprove (43 percent)

Guess what? According to SUSA, Republican Senator Jim Bunning saw a similar bump among men in Kentucky. In March, he had 40 percent approval among men, and in April he went up to 46 percent.

Guess what? According to SUSA, Republican Governor Ernie Fletcher saw a similar bump among men in Kentucky. In March, he had 35 percent approval among them, and in April he had 41 percent.

Guess what? According to SUSA, Republican President George W. Bush saw a similar bump among men in Kentucky. In March, he had 40 percent approval among men, and in April he had 45 percent.

So what does it all mean? Well, Republicans are playing to their base, especially on the war front, as they have in the past, and — as in the past, such as around September 11th anniversaries — Republicans see a short-lived bounce among men.

And it quickly evaporates. So, Republicans across the board in Kentucky are seeing an increase in support among men, and it won’t last long.