Bunning and Belushi
The senator who has lost his fastball
Bunning and Belushi
Dick Polman, Inquirer National Political Columnist
On the original Saturday Night Live, John Belushi used to play a slobbering character called The Thing That Wouldn't Leave, so named because of his clueless propensity for staying too long at a party, and refusing all hints and entreaties from his hosts to haul himself off the sofa and hit the road.
Senate Democrats are currently saddled with such a character; I refer, of course, to Roland Burris. But Burris has sucked up so much attention lately that it's easier to forget about the Thing who persists in camping out on the Republican sofa, even as his hapless hosts gnash their teeth and pray that he will go away.
I refer, of course, to GOP senator Jim Bunning of Kentucky, the former baseball pitcher who hurled a perfect game as a Phillie in 1964, but who, in his two terms as a Washington lawmaker, has been pitching way too many screwballs.
Bunning is such an embarrassment, with his verbal miscues and bizarre behavior, that Senate Republican leaders are now working openly to bounce him out of the chamber. They have made it abundantly clear that they don't want him to run for re-election next year - a highly unusual posture, since party leaders normally encourage incumbents to run again. But Bunning, at age 77, is shaking off all the signs and digging in for a third bid. The GOP is so distressed by his intransigence - and so worried that a Bunning defeat next year would help the Democrats win a filibuster-proof 60 seats - that they are actively soliciting another Kentucky Republican to challenge their own senator in a party primary. That's how bad things are with the Thing.
Actually, things got even worse over the weekend, when Bunning declared in a speech that Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsberg will soon be dead. By the end of the summer, in fact.
While making an argument for more conservative judges, Bunning informed his audience that the high court will soon have one less liberal judge. Bunning, who is not a doctor, and who naturally has no access to Ginsberg's private medical records, nevertheless stated that she has "bad cancer. The kind you don't get better from. Even though she was operated on (Feb. 5), usually nine months is the longest that anybody would live after being diagnosed with pancreatic cancer."
Meanwhile, Ginsberg was back on the bench yesterday, firing questions at lawyers, as medical experts provided a cautiously optimistic prognosis, noting that her cancer had been caught at an early stage and that it had not spread beyond her pancreas. And Bunning - realizing, perhaps, that it's a tad tacky for a senator to summarily consign a high court judge to her eternal rest - shifted yesterday into mea culpa mode: "I apologize if my comments offended Justice Ginsburg." (If?)
The Ginsberg episode is merely the latest in a long string of embarrassments. That's one big reason why he has barely raised any money for his 2010 re-election bid (a Senate incumbent in Kentucky needs to raise upwards of $20 million; in Bunning's latest filing, he has raised around $175,000). Meanwhile, the Kentucky polls show that he is highly vulnerable - which is no surprise, given the fact that Bunning barely eked out a two-point victory in 2004, on a night when President Bush won Kentucky by 20.
Bunning's behavior is legendary in GOP circles. During his '04 campaign, he said that Democratic challenger Daniel Mongiardo looked like Saddam Hussein's sons "and even dresses like them, too." (A Bunning spokesman later apologized, while insisting that the remark had generated "a lot of laughs.") Bunning also boosted his security detail, at taxpayer expense, claiming that al Qaeda might be targeting him; indeed, he told a TV crew, "There may be strangers among us." (Senate officials said there were no specific threats against Bunning.) Even in 2007, he insisted that Mongiardo (a doctor by trade) had dispatched campaign workers dressed as doctors to harass him and Mrs. Bunning ("I had little green doctors pounding on my back"), though there was no evidence of it happening.
He has also alienated business leaders and fellow Republicans back home. During the '04 campaign, he told a chamber of commerce luncheon in Louisville that, contrary to all expectations, the city would not be getting a new bridge. This was news to the local Republican congresswoman, Anne Northrup, who had arranged for that bridge to be built with federal funds - and who knew that, in fact, the project had the green light. Northrup had to mollify the shocked business leaders by declaring that the senator was merely "confused," a word that is code for "senile." As for Bunning, he at first denied that he had uttered his inaccuracy - then admitted saying it only after he was informed that his speech had been recorded. (He had also denied the remark about Hussein's sons, until informed that those remarks had been videotaped.)
Bunning also has a habit of being in the wrong place. In October '04, he was supposed to be in Kentucky for the only scheduled Senate campaign debate; instead, he was up in Washington, claiming he was "tied up" with legislative duties (actually, the Senate was not in session). So he participated via satellite, and appeared to be using a teleprompter in violation of the debate rules.
By contrast, when he was supposed to be in Washington last month, for the opening Senate session and the casting of consequential votes, he was somewhere else on vacation (he has never said where). Republican officials were less than thrilled, rightly recognizing that Bunning's decision to go AWOL in a time of crisis could well become grist for Democratic attack ads in Kentucky next year.
So it's no wonder that Washington GOP strategists have been huddling with a respected Republican state senator, mapping the possibility of his challenging Bunning in a primary (while officially denying, naturally, that any such plans are in the works). Most instructive, however, is that posture being taken by Republicans Mitch McConnell (the GOP's Senate leader) and John Cornyn (who chairs the party's 2010 campaign committee). They have met with Bunning, he has told them that he intends to run, and yet they still keep insisting publicly that Bunning has yet to make up his mind. To which Bunning said of Cornyn, "He's either deaf, or he doesn't listen very well."
Cornyn was also recently asked whether Bunning would be the best candidate to hold a seat that the GOP dearly needs next year. Cornyn replied, "I don't know. I think it's really up to Senator Bunning."
Stripping away the politesse, here's the translation: "I wish that freaking slag heap would take a hint, get off the sofa, and hit the road."
But the point is, senators don't feel compelled to take such hints. Once ensconced, they often tend to be independent actors, heedless of the needs of their party. Once ensconced, they are tough to extricate - short of waging a successful, and costly, primary. That's the deal at the moment with Burris and Bunning, this season's winners of the Belushi award.
HEY SNS08! Take a look here http://www.gallup.com/poll/116077/Obama-Job-Approval-Dips-Below-First-Time.aspx approval is NOT 68% and it has been steadily dropping. But go ahead, call Gallup a right wing polling organization.— jwad56- And then there is this by the other right wing polling org http://www.rasmussenreports.com/public_content/business/economic_stimulus_package/confidence_in_stimulus_plan_drops_over_past_week— jwad56
- NEPhilly, keep on getting informed! Soon, you'll be a liberal!— Djoko Pritza
- TIRED: The GOP Stim Bill would produce twice as many jobs for half the cost, and in half the time. The Dems and MSM prevented the public from hearing the truth. As far as throwing Bunning under the bus, it's The Conse 'Pub way. Reagan said never speak ill of a fellow 'Pub, but they make exceptions to cut certain guys 100% loose.— Talvenada
- Djoko, now I'm reading and quoting Maureen Dowd, the horror:) **Though he demonstrated in the campaign that he has a rare gift for inspiring the country with new belief in itself, Mr. Obama has not yet captured either the grit the moment requires or the fury it provokes. He has not explained in a compelling way why Americans who followed the rules need to sacrifice more to help those who flouted the rules.** That is why the CNBC reporter Rick Santelli struck a populist nerve with his screed about the unfairness of responsible homeowners picking up the tab for irresponsible homeowners — following the unfairness of taxpayers who are losing jobs, homes and savings propping up the exact same bankers and carmakers whose greed and myopia caused the economy to crash. http://www.nytimes.com/2009/02/22/opinion/22dowd.html?_r=1— NEPhilly
- **All in all, I can see why the markets are nervous and dropping. And it’s also clear that we’re on the cusp of the biggest political experiment of our lifetimes. If Obama is mostly successful, then the epistemological skepticism natural to conservatives will have been discredited. We will know that highly trained government experts are capable of quickly designing and executing top-down transformational change. If they mostly fail, then liberalism will suffer a grievous blow, and conservatives will be called upon to restore order and sanity. It’ll be interesting to see who’s right. But I can’t even root for my own vindication. The costs are too high. I have to go to the keyboard each morning hoping Barack Obama is going to prove me wrong. ** http://www.nytimes.com/2009/02/24/opinion/24brooks.html?ref=opinion I think I know the answer, but we will see:) I like the NY Times:)— NEPhilly
- NEPHil, I just read that David Brooks column this morning. I also read the Maureen Dowd. I visit that site every day. Whether you agree with them or not, they have some of the best writers in the country. And as I'm a word nerd, that goes a long way with me! Maureen can be snarky and satirical, but no one has a vocabulary like hers.— NigeltheMastiff
- I am sure residents of Kentucky could care less what an urban liberal journalist thinks. When you get right down to it there is lots of stupid sound bites from Senators and politicians. Take Joe Biden. He's just a laugh a minute. Anyone remember his soundbite about the clerks at the 7-11. Or Robert Byrd's off color comments which I will not repeat. What is even funnier about Robert Byrd is that he's a former Klansman.
- Ne--I still don't get what you and Rush are trying to prove. Sure there were democrats who were entranced by the prospect of the housing bubble, and there were also republicans who felt the same. And the republicans had eight years of being in sole charge of the fed and the bank regulatory institutions, and did nothing about the risks. That's what happened. I can't see how any of this can be used as a republican selling point; all that can be said for them is that it wasn't a one-party catastrophe.— liberal
- NE--both the Dowd and Brooks columns you quoted were more nuanced--you picked the "on the other hand" part that was sceptical of Obama. Still, I'm glad to see you reading the NYT. Incidentally, I'm pretty much agreeing with Brooks these days.— liberal
- lib, that is what I am now, nuanced:) As for the financial meltdown, the Repubs should have done more. I agree and I am angry and I want answers as to who is at fault, the heck with politics! Also, we need 'clawbacks' on all those bonus' the banking officials/CEO's (Franklin Raines, 1st in line) made as well and that is un-Republican. During the campaign candidate Obama made it sounds like (and still today makes this meltdown sound like) a Republican making, which I dispute and I'm glad you agree, that's all! Steve Forbes said he thinks we should have a 'toxic bank' to buy all these nasty assets from the banks and keep them as investments. What do you think? The banks stock prices need to rebound and quick, they are only worth $300 Bil total and we spent $700 Bill to save them already? Nigel, I think Maureen tries too hard with the vocab, but I must admit I like it. In any case, time to hit the ball out of the park tonight with this speech, Mr. President, time to lead, time to be positive, time to give hope, time to use your 'gift of gab' for the good of the country, not just for the good of your party!— NEPhilly
- Mr Obama will remind us that the economy is the worst most since the great depression tonight. But thanks to his stimulus, it will get better but only after it gets worse. blah blah blah.... don't waste your time watchin' this
- NEPhil, I can't remember where I read it, but I think I saw that Obama agrees with Forbes about creating a bank for the toxic assets. I can't remember what term he used to describe it, but it sounded like the same thing.— NigeltheMastiff
- NePhilly, I couldn't agree more that both parties have much responsibility on their hands for this current mess. I think that Obama is trying to define the problem HONESTLY so we can honestly solve it. For instance why it took until now for Iraq expenditures to be on the budget is beyond me.— ModerateMarge
- Marge- It was the community reinvestment act and the zeal of democrats to get loans for poor people that built the house of cards that created the financial mess. It mostly lies at the doorstep of Barney Frank. As for the cost of the War in Afghanistan and Iraq, any cost has to be subtracted from what those troops would be paid if it were peacetime. The cost of the equipment and training isn't free either in peacetime. Wether in war or peace we still need to fly the Jets and Helicopters and use all the equipment in training exercises. And the troops still get paid.— ModerateMike
Cited by the Columbia Journalism Review as one of the nation's top political reporters, and lauded by the ABC News political website as "one of the finest political journalists of his generation," Dick Polman is a national political columnist at the Philadelphia Inquirer. He is on the full-time faculty at the University of Pennsylvania, as "writer in residence." Dick has been a frequent guest on C-Span, MSNBC, CNN, NPR and the BBC. He covered the 1992, 1996, 2000, and 2004 presidential campaigns.
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