Beauty & the Beast: Palin, McConnell wage proxy battle in Kentucky Senate race

By GottaLaff

Beauty and the Beast:

The Senate Republican primary in Kentucky has emerged as a proxy battle between two leaders of the factionalized Republican Party, Sarah Palin and Mitch McConnell.

At stake is the direction of the Republican Party, which Republican leaders in Washington fear could turn off middle-of-the road voters if it lurches too far to the right.

Maverick v. Establishment? Rogue v. Entrenched? McBrainless v. McChinless?

[Andrew] Breitbart said people in the Tea Party “love” Sarah Palin because “they sense she’s not beholden to the Beltway [and] they like her independent spirit.”

She's not beholden to ethics either... Dude.

Republican leaders in Washington, in contrast, have had trouble winning over Tea Party partisans.

They should count themselves lucky on that score.

The emergence of the Tea Party and the hostility of its members toward the GOP establishment gives party leaders cause for concern because it reflects growing estrangement with the party base. [...]

It’s questionable whether Tea Party conservatives could develop enough strength and unity to upset the leadership hierarchy in Washington, but they certainly threaten to play havoc in primaries.

A "DC insider":

“McConnell truly sees the prospect that the tea baggers could veer his party further to the right, far enough to the right to turn off moderates trending his way,” said Cross, using a derisive term for Tea Party activists.

“The Democrats best chance of winning the seat is for Rand Paul to be the nominee,” he said.

Meanwhile, generally speaking, the D Party could do a little unifying itself, and in the process, attract a few independents and moderates their way.

Controlled substance prescriptions up in 118 Kentucky counties

Wow, someone has 'script issues.

FRANKFORT — The rate of prescriptions for controlled substances increased in 118 of 120 Kentucky counties between 2005 and 2007, according to a new report released Wednesday.

The Sourcebook of Criminal Justice Statistics in the Commonwealth for 2007 also shows that five Kentucky counties — Clinton, Magoffin, Whitley, Bell and Owsley — averaged more than four controlled substance prescriptions per resident.

AUDIO: "I'm close to saying f*** it all. ...I do not need the U.S. Senate."

By GottaLaff

Via Bluegrass Politics:



Who does he think he is, Jenny Slate?

"I'm close to saying fuck it all. I do not need this job. I do not need the U.S. Senate."

-- Kentucky Lt. Gov. Daniel Mongiardo (D), caught on tape talking about his Senate campaign.

Mongiardo also rips into Gov. Steve Beshear (D) saying he'll be remembered as the state's "worst" governor and warns that a "blowup" is coming.

Kentucky GOP Pol Found With Slit Wrists After Shooting Death Of Ex-Fiancée

By GottaLaff

Steve Nunn and Amanda Ross at the Governor's Ball on Dec. 11, 2007, for newly elected Gov. Steve Beshear. (The Courier-Journal)

Via TPM:

Steve Nunn, a former Kentucky GOP lawmaker and gubernatorial candidate was found by police this afternoon with slit wrists in the cemetery where his parents lie buried. Hours earlier, Nunn's former fiancée had been found shot to death in a Lexington parking lot.

According to the local sheriff, Nunn, 57, placed mementos on his parents' graves, moved several feet away, then cut his wrists. [...] Nunn was taken via ambulance to the hospital.

Nunn's former fiancée, Amanda Ross, was found dead this morning. A neighbor told reporters she heard five shots and screams at 6:11 a.m. in a courtyard outside Ross's condominium. [...]

Nunn was arrested after being taken to the hospital, for allegedly violating a protective order against Ross, by carrying the handgun. [...]

Steve Nunn -- who spent what he has called his "formative years" in the governor's mansion -- received just 13 percent of the vote running against [Ernie] Fletcher in the gubernatorial primary that year. He is also a former state legislator. [...]

Nunn and Ross had a deeply troubled relationship. [...]

But they stayed in contact, and in February he was at her home for dinner. That night, Ross later charged in a domestic violence complaint, he struck her four times in the face, threw her against a hallway lamp, breaking it, then threw a cup of bourbon in her face. [...]

An order of protection was placed on Nunn, ordering him to have no contact with Ross for a year. Nunn was placed on administrative leave from his job as deputy secretary of the state's health and human services department, and resigned soon after.

In July, a judge found Nunn in contempt of the protection order, after Ross alleged that Nunn had published "tampered photographs" of her. [...]

Late Update: The Herald-Leader now adds:

Police have not charged Nunn, Kentucky State Police Trooper Charles Sweeney said. Police officers will question Nunn upon his release.

Lexington police Lt. Doug Pape said Nunn is "a guy we want to talk to" in reference to the fatal shooting of his former fiancée, Amanda Ross.

As Zachary Roth says in his post, the story suggests "a son struggling to live up to the accomplishments of his father, it's almost a modern-day Southern Gothic."

Sad, shocking, nothing to snark about here.

H/t: Cody

Rand Paul, Ron's son, announces exploratory committee for U.S. Senate run

By GottaLaff

Dr. Rand Paul is on the Rachel Maddow Show, saying he's interested in running in Kentucky. He just announced his exploratory committee for a 2010 Senate run.

David Shuster's Hypocrisy Watch: Mitch McConnell

So much McConnell, so much hypocrisy.

Kentucky Governor: Obama people 'hit the ground running' on storm

By GottaLaff

"Hitting the ground running" seems to be the mantra for the ObamAdministration. This is the anti Katrina-White House:

Kentucky's governor is praising the Obama administration's prompt reaction to the fierce wintry weather that slammed his state.

"They really hit the ground running," said Steve Beshear, interviewed by CNN. "They're working very hard to get all the equipment and supplies here that we need."

So the U.S. government under President Obama was-- Oh, hmm, what's the word again? It's escaped me since 2001... Oh yeah-- responsive.

He said he spoke to the director of intergovernment relations and said she walked Kentucky's paperwork through. He said President Obama called him and told him he was announcing an emergency declaration for the state.

"I can't tell you how appreciative we were," the governor said. "He not only expressed his concern, but he obviously had the Kentuckians in his thoughts and prayers, and he communicated that to us."

Heckuva job, Barack.

Kentucky grand jury won't charge two who hung Obama effigy

By GottaLaff

An effigy for an effigy:

A Kentucky grand jury refused Tuesday to indict two men who hung an effigy of Barack Obama from a tree last fall on the University of Kentucky campus, their lawyer said.

The grand jury dismissed charges of second-degree burglary, theft by unlawful taking and disorderly conduct against Hunter Bush, 21, and Joe Fischer, 22, a UK senior, lawyer Fred Peters said Tuesday. [...]

UK police said the two men told them the act was in response to news reports that an effigy of Republican vice presidential candidate Sarah Palin had been hung in California.

The couple who hung the eBay-worthy Palin effigy were not indicted either, which didn't sit well at all with one commenter over at the L.A. Times blog back in October 2008 :

This is a hate crime.
It's artsy-fartsy.
Even though Palin isn't BLACK- it portrays violence.
If this was an effigy of OBAMA- their house would have been burned down already.

Just a preview of the "justice" that will be to come- economic or otherwise that will be- if Obama is elected.

God save us.

McCain-Palin 2008

Call me crazy, but I'm guessing that this distraught commenter wouldn't be too broken up over the news of the two UK guys getting a pass.

Kentucky law requires state Homeland Security office to credit God with state's safety

Very weird state commonwealth**.

LEXINGTON, Ky. (AP) _ A lawmaker says the state's Homeland Security office should be crediting God with keeping the state safe.

State Rep. Tom Riner, a Southern Baptist minister who was instrumental in establishing that requirement in 2006, disapproves of the fact that Homeland Security doesn't currently mention God in its mission statement or on its Web site.

The law passed under former Gov. Ernie Fletcher, who prominently credited God in annual reports to state leaders. But Gov. Steve Beshear's administration didn't credit God in its 2008 Homeland Security report issued last month.

(snip)

The law that organized the Homeland Security office first lists Homeland Security's duty to recognize that government itself can't secure the state without God, even before mentioning other duties, which include distributing millions of dollars in federal grants and analyzing possible threats.

**corrected via comments.

Poll-itics: Why-o-a are they in Iowa? edition

By GottaLaff

Why-o-a go to Iowa if you're Gramm-pa McCain or IWRC* Palin?

Lee Enterprises Poll: Obama Way Ahead in Iowa

Sen. Barack Obama has extended his lead slightly to 15 points over Sen. John McCain in Iowa, 54% to 39%, according to a new Courier-Lee Enterprises poll.

Key finding: "Obama continued to lead among independent voters 57 to 36 percent, as well as with both men and women and every age group."

Key questions: Why is McCain campaigning in Iowa tomorrow? And why was Gov. Sarah Palin there today?

Beats me. But they are leading in Kentucky, 55% to Obama's 39%.

*"In What Respect, Charlie?"

Kentucky In Play?

Well bless my buttons and call me Mildred.

Tom Daschle told me last night that the playing field could get even broader, in our story on Obama's offense, and McCain's defense:

Obama is weighing broadening a map that already appears big and red into four more states. A top adviser, former Senate Majority Leader Tom Daschle, said Obama is considering expanding his active campaign back into North Dakota and Georgia, from which he’d shifted resources, and into the Appalachian heartland of West Virginia and Kentucky.

“Those states are much more in play than they were a week ago,” Daschle said.

Kentucky Clinton backers inch toward Obama

By GottaLaff

Little by little, voters are seeing McCain/Palin for what they are, and for what they aren't:

Perhaps the most influential voting bloc in Kentucky this fall will be the supporters of a candidate who's not even in the presidential race.

That would be the throngs of Hillary Rodham Clinton supporters, many of whom are women — specifically white, baby boomer-types. They are known online as Hillarinas or Clintonistas.[...]

And many of those who spoke to the Herald-Leader and were contacted by the newspaper's pollster at the time said they'd struggle to support Obama in the fall if Clinton didn't win their party's nomination.[...]

[Clinton supporter] Reed, who said in the spring that she admired McCain's record of military service and positions on national defense, said her change of heart has come after studying the two candidates' positions on domestic issues — particularly health care and the economy.

"If my decision was about preventing terrorism, I would vote for John McCain," she said. "But I am placing my emphasis on the economy, health and welfare and I want to get that national debt paid down." [...]

Casual Democrats might be persuaded by Palin's presence, said [Clinton supporter] Tarpey. But not most Clinton supporters, she said.

"She doesn't have the same positions as Hillary," Tarpey said, pointing to Palin's rigid opposition to abortion rights and strong support for drilling for oil in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge. "The whole thing about Hillary Clinton supporters voting for McCain, that's just something that the Republicans ginned up," said Susan Carson Lambert, 60, a farmer and renewable energy consultant from Lawrenceburg. Lambert was a rare Democrat who was still undecided in the days leading up to the May 20 primary.

She said last week she ended up voting for Clinton. And she said she expects many of the voters who stood up for their woman last spring to now stand by their party's man in November.

"Most people I know who I've had conversations with say, 'This is my party's candidate and I'm standing behind him,' " she said.

Kentucky. Sweet.

And the "Duh" Award goes to....

By Paddy


Been awhile since I've handed one of these out (too many nominees, not enough time), but this is a true, classic DUH. (And may I mention Mitch that there is a distinct possibility that you might not even be in the Senate next year?)

(CNN) — Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Kentucky) gave a bleak outlook on the prospects for a Republican-led Senate in 2009.

During an interview with CNN’s Late Edition, McConnell told guest host Candy Crowley that the numbers were not in the GOP’s favor.

“We are not going to be back in the majority in the Senate next year,” said McConnell. “The numbers make that impossible.”

Poll-itics: Oregon and Kentucky

By GottaLaff

Democratic Candidate	OR	KY
Pollster	ARG	ARG
Date	5/14-16	5/14-15
Hillary Clinton	45%	65%
Barack Obama	50%	29%
Other(vol.)	5%	6%
Details	Link	Link

For a breakdown of the numbers, go here.

Oregon is conducting their primary by mail and there is a dead heat between Obama and Clinton among those who have already mailed their ballot, says American Research Group via the results of their poll. It is those folks mailing in their ballots within the last week that are going to give Obama his edge likely to do the inevitability factor that Obama has. But there's a chance that Clinton does better among voters who have already voted. This would be the case if a voter felt that Obama is the eventual nominee and is regretting his/her vote and kind of shy to admit the truth. If Clinton can pull within a razor thin margin of Obama in Oregon and win Kentucky by as large a margins as she had in West Virginia, it will make for a very interesting June because the pressure will mount on Clinton to drop out but the wins will still be on her side.