Tuesday, 28 July 2009
Bunning Out
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The day was Bunning dropped his bid for re-election to the U.S. Senate was inevitable. The fact of the matter is he never seriously raised funs for the race. There was no way he compete with the pittance of money he had raised to this point. While he may have a point that Republican leaders hindered his chances of raising funds recently, they weren't hindering him during the last six years while he as Senator. If he was serious he would have been raising money throughtout the years he was Senator. He didn't do it. I just don't think he had the burning desire to get re-elected to the Senate and finally gave in to the reality of the situation. Plus, I think he cleared the decks for Grayson, but that is another story.
I believe Bunning will be remembered for one thing. He had an uncanny ability to NOT play the political game in D.C. His inability to be a political creature led to his foot in mouth disease that the left routinely castigated him. A disease that nearly saw him lose to Mongiardo six years ago. While it may have lead to some poor quips, it also forged him into a Senator who always followed his core beliefs. He never cared for making a deal or the horse trading that goes on in the legislator. He never cared what the media thought of him. A practice that lead to an openly hostile relationship with the media.
He only cared that he was consistently following the principles that guided him. As such, his clarity and common sense on the issues of the day were amazing. Just in the last few years we saw his precient insight on a number of occasion. For years, he denounced the practices of Freddie Mac and Fannie Mae. He saw the coming housing bubble and was one of the few senators to try and stop it during the Bush years. He knew the "stimulus" package would not stimulate the economy and voted against it. Turned out he was right both times. Something the senior senator from Kentucky failed to see.
Personally, I want to thank Bunning for his service in the U.S. Senate. I thought he did an outstanding job fighting for conservative causes in the Senate. I wish him well in his future endeavors.
I believe Bunning will be remembered for one thing. He had an uncanny ability to NOT play the political game in D.C. His inability to be a political creature led to his foot in mouth disease that the left routinely castigated him. A disease that nearly saw him lose to Mongiardo six years ago. While it may have lead to some poor quips, it also forged him into a Senator who always followed his core beliefs. He never cared for making a deal or the horse trading that goes on in the legislator. He never cared what the media thought of him. A practice that lead to an openly hostile relationship with the media.
He only cared that he was consistently following the principles that guided him. As such, his clarity and common sense on the issues of the day were amazing. Just in the last few years we saw his precient insight on a number of occasion. For years, he denounced the practices of Freddie Mac and Fannie Mae. He saw the coming housing bubble and was one of the few senators to try and stop it during the Bush years. He knew the "stimulus" package would not stimulate the economy and voted against it. Turned out he was right both times. Something the senior senator from Kentucky failed to see.
Personally, I want to thank Bunning for his service in the U.S. Senate. I thought he did an outstanding job fighting for conservative causes in the Senate. I wish him well in his future endeavors.
Posted by at 5:35 AM in Kentucky Politics
