CAPTION the bizarre Kentucky Republican

[BurtWorm]

http://www.salon.com/news/feature/2004/10/12/bunning_kentucky/index.html

Oct. 12, 2004 | It's no secret in Kentucky that Sen. Jim Bunning, a Republican who was expected to coast to reelection on Nov. 2, has been acting strange. Over the past few months, Bunning has angrily pushed away reporters, exchanged testy words with a questioner at a Rotary Club and stuck to brief, heavily scripted remarks at campaign events, delivered in a halting monotone. The former major league baseball star now travels the Bluegrass State with a special police escort, at taxpayer expense. His explanation? Al-Qaida may be out to get him.

More substantively, the incumbent would agree to only one debate with his Democratic challenger, state Sen. Daniel Mongiardo. And the rules Bunning negotiated were bizarrely rigid: The encounter could not be live; the taping has to occur in the afternoon, not the evening; no audience could be present in the studio; and, under threat of legal action, Mongiardo could not use any sound clips or video of Bunning's debate performance in campaign advertisements.

This apparent fear of the spontaneous has 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. But until now, there was nothing hard to suggest that the one-term Republican senator was anything but a crotchety, occasionally confused, or arrogant old man.

On Monday, however, Bunning -- who turns 73 this month -- abruptly retreated behind yet another barrier, in an action so inexplicable that it appears likely to bring the rumors about his health, now referred to obliquely in Kentucky news reports, into open discussion. It may also mark a turning point in a race that, against all expectations, has been tightening recently.

[pdx_prog]

1. I dreamed

I had dinner with the Clenis last night....damn thing was THIS big!

[salinen]

2. Gee that reminds me

of another egotistical hot tempered ignorant frat boy.

[MADem]

3. I got wood, alright...lotsa wood n/t

[7th_Sephiroth]

4. he sounds syphlitic

his brain might be rotting away

[YpsiH2Otwr]

5. This should be taken seriously

This man is slipping FAST, in more ways than one. More people in Kentucky need to hear about this.

[BurtWorm]

8. Actually, you're right. This isn't funny.

And yet, you can't depend on Republicans not to turn out in big numbers to return him to office, as they did Strom Thurmond, for instance, because they know that he can just be a seat warmer who can be told how to vote. (Of course this guy sounds like a loose cannon.)

[mandyky]

11. Yeah post this in the State Forums - Kentucky!

Bunning has been runiing lying smear ads against Mongiardo.

Slightly off topic, Lexington KY was one of the stops on the Saudi escape planes on Sept. 13, 2001. Wonder if Bunning was behind that. Due to the horse racing, we have many Saudis here in KY.

[von Staufenberg]

12. I agree 100%

Louisvillian here, and yes, Bunning has truly been losing it. His behavior seems to be getting stranger and stranger. This goes beyond just idle campaign speculation, his mental health needs to become a major issue. He has never been accused of being the sharpest tool in the shed and the thought of working backwards from those limited intellectual capabilities is particularly frightening.
Qusay Mongiardo in '04!

[BurtWorm]

15. Hey, Kentuckians, what are the odds of unseating this disaster?

[BurtWorm]

6. "I'm lucky I'm a Republican because my party has about this much

principle and brain between the lot of 'em."

[hadrons]

7. although Reagan and Strom proved that ....

dementia isn't a problem for Repuke voters

[tsakshaug]

9. if you're crazy and you know it

clap your hands.....

[Downtown Hound]

10. I just smoked a crack rock thhiiiisss big!

[skip fox]

13. "And they're making midget terrorist submarines this big filled

with jellybean explosives that stick your moth shut so you can't eat and die from hunger even though you can still swallow and moan. . . . So I called and told George about this last night . . . (You know, the President is the only one who REALLY understands me.) . . . Like I was saying, the sales tax on cars and ginsing could be used to float the trade deficit like a helium battleship in a Mongoloid minute . . . And George was real interested and asked me questions for about an hour . . . so I told him about the dwarf terrorists hidden in sexual devices . . . (Boy, he sure is understanding . . . No wonder he's the president!) . . . . and then about the cockroach eggs hidden in condoms so they sprout and nick you, which I know is another Communist-terrorist plot hatched in a Bejing laundrymat . . . and . . . (and the President said that with a mind like mine . . . well, he'd do ANYthing to get me re-elected.) . . . and about the Buddhist prayer which has like Satan or Santa Claus on backwards hidden in fortune cookies at the Red Lobster . . . and"

[BurtWorm]

16. I used to live in a boarding house with someone who talked like that.

:scared:

[skip fox]

17. You mean that walk-up on Iowa City's Chancy Street at Vine? . . . Yikes!!!

That was me!

[BurtWorm]

18. So....you feeling better?

:hi:

[skip fox]

19. Meds finally kicked in, thanks.

:toast:

[Endangered Specie]

14. Nothing out of the ordinary, for Kentucky.

[cali]

20. Bunning appears

to have some form of dementia. There's an excellent post over on Kos about his condition. There's speculation that he'll resign after the election and that the Governor (Is it Ernie Fletcher?) will appoint another Repub, possibly himself to Bunning's seat. In any case, it is a serious issue and should be treated as such. As several posters at Kos pointed out making an issue of it is one thing, making fun of Bunning's illness is another, and makes us all look bad.