Kentucky Paper Says Bunning Can't Go the Distance

By: Joe Strupp An unusual editorial in The Courier-Journal of Louisville, Ky., Thursday all but declared Sen. Jim Bunning (R-Ky.) unsuitable for office following "outrageous statements" and "increased belligerence," but it has yet to bring a retort from the senator himself.

The opinion piece, however, did bring an angry response from Kentucky's other senator, Senate Majority Whip Mitch McConnell, who compared the paper's effort to anti-communist McCarthyism during the 1950s.

"He objected and invoked the Army-McCarthy hearings and said we had crossed way over the line," Courier-Journal editorial director David Hawpe said about a phone call from McConnell. "He invoked Joseph Welch, the attorney in the hearings who chastised Sen. Joseph McCarthy by saying, 'Have you no decency, sir?' I disagreed with him and told him my view is that it is an entirely reasonable editorial."

"It's not that unusual for him to call us," Hawpe added. "It is unusual for us to have that serious a disagreement about an editorial. He couldn't believe that we had published it."

The editorial, which ran under the title "Bunning's fitness," cited the first-term senator's recent attacks on his opponent, Daniel Mongiardo, including unfounded accusations that Mongiardo's staff tried to abuse Bunning's wife. It also mentioned Bunning's few public appearances, including his strange decision to participate in a debate from a remote location in Washington, D.C.

These occurances "are raising questions about Sen. Bunning's suitability for office," the editorial said. "Is he, as he ages, just becoming a more concentrated version of himself: more arrogant, more prickly? Certainly that would be a normal occurrence.

"Or is his increasing belligerence an indication of something worse?" the editorial continued. "Has Sen. Bunning drifted into territory that indicates a serious health concern?"

The editorial went on to suggest that Bunning could remedy the situation by if he were to call "press conferences throughout the state, stand before the public and say, 'here I am. Ask me questions. You'll see how fit I am'."

Bunning has received attention in several other news outlets for his unusual behavior. Salon.com ran a story Tuesday that said his actions had "spurred rumors in Kentucky that Bunning, a member of the Baseball Hall of Fame, is suffering from some sort of dementia, perhaps Alzheimer's. Bunning has declined to release his medical records."

Then, Friday, a political Weblog, dailykos.com, said the senator's behavior "had become increasingly erratic, sparking rumors of mental illness."

A Bunning spokesman declined to comment to E&P on the editorial and said the senator had not given a response to the paper.

McConnell's office also did not respond to requests for comment.

Hawpe said he chose to publish the editorial, in part, as a response to readers who were demanding some kind of action in recent weeks following a number of these incidents. "The e-mails were burning up from readers," said Hawpe, who added that Bunning had also declined an invitation to meet with the paper's editorial board for a routine endorsement get-together. "It was a culmination of all of these things."