NY Times Op-Ed on debate with Gurley L. Martin plug

[GoatsGoneWild]

hxxp://www.nytimes.com/2010/04/24/opinion/24collins.html

The article is about all of the Senate races but here is the part about Kentucky:

In Kentucky, Mitch McConnell, the Senate minority leader, intended to take nothing for granted when it came to keeping the Republicans’ hold on a Senate seat that’s up for grabs this year. His first, and canniest, move was to force the incumbent, Jim Bunning, to retire. Bunning, a cranky ex-baseball player, barely won his last race when he got caught using a teleprompter during a debate and claimed that his opponent, an Italian-American doctor, looked like “one of Saddam Hussein’s sons.”

For Bunning’s successor, McConnell picked Trey Grayson, the secretary of state, who looks a little like a younger, larger Mitch McConnell. Unfortunately for the plan, Grayson is currently getting his clock cleaned by the Tea Party candidate, Rand Paul.

It is very hard to pick a favorite. Would you prefer the man endorsed by Mitch McConnell and Dick Cheney, or the one backed by Sarah Palin and Jim Bunning? I watched a Northern Kentucky Chamber of Commerce debate on Friday, and Grayson, who opposed wasteful earmarks, but not the good wholesome ones that come to Kentucky, kind of faded into the woodwork.

It was the out-of-the-running candidates who were the attention-grabbers. There was a very large, genial man whose slogan was “We need to make a U-turn to God,” and a small, gnarled World War II veteran who called the president “a would-be mullah of the most evil kind.” This was Gurley Martin, and his answer to a question on cap-and-trade legislation was to croak out “Horsefeathers! Horsefeathers! Horsefeathers!”

If Paul holds on to his lead and wins the nomination, the Democrats — who never really felt they had a prayer in Kentucky — will take heart. Paul is going to be hampered by a general impression in many parts of the state that he is sort of strange. This may be because Grayson keeps running ads titled “Rand Paul: Strange Ideas.”

The Democratic nominee may be the lieutenant governor, Daniel Mongiardo, the same guy who Bunning called Saddam-like six years ago. If he and Paul are both the final candidates, it will be an all-physician Senate election. You do see more and more doctors in the political game. Perhaps they want to get out of the medical business before that payment-by-chicken thing kicks in.

I hate the way she tries to marginalize Rand just because he got Palin and Bunning endorsements. It's almost like his positions on the issue and performance in the debate don't matter to her and would rather associate him with the antics of Gurley and Stephenson.

I also love that she assumes that Grayson's attack ads are honest and that the state of Kentucky shares Trey's idea that Rand is "strange."

 

[Matt Collins]

It's the New York Slimes. What do you expect?

 

[thomas-in-ky]

The strange ideas campaign was meant for small minds. Ironically, this neo-con refrain was taken hook,line and sinker by someone at the NY Times! Let them say what they want. When we get through this primary, they will find it hard to run a democrat candidate to the Neo-Con right of true Conservative Rand Paul. The democrat foil to Rand Paul will come across as a true liberal in KY, and that won't sit well here.

 

[RonPaulFanInGA]

Kentucky, a state that very throughly rejected Obama in both the primary and general, is not going to send another Obama vote to Congress in this political climate. Period.

 

[Cowlesy]

"gnarled WWII veteran"

Got to love the contemptuous NY slimes.

 

[amisspelledword]

It's the New York Slimes. What do you expect?

beat me to it

 

[Aratus]

"horsefeathers, horsefeathers, horsefeathers" = gripe about higher education?

horsefeathers? gurley L. martin is ww2 era http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0023027/

 

[amy31416]

I don't care what the NYT says, I want to adopt Gurley Martin as my honorary grandfather. He's cantankerous in all the best ways.

 

[Agorism]

I don't know anything about Gail Collins.

Normally if you can find out where the author is coming from then you can put their article in a better perspective.

 

[amisspelledword]

overall i think Gurley won the debate.

 

[Matt Collins]

I smell some fellow Mike Church listeners in here... time for a beer party!

 

[Nathan Hale]

I love the line at the end about doctors getting out of medicine before the whole "paying by chicken" thing kicks in.