Target Acquired

Most of the Republican senators who I'd most like to see replaced in 2010 have already done us the favor of announcing they are not seeking re-election, so I've had a hard time lately figuring out who I'm going to root against. Jim Bunning just decided to stand up, wave his hands in the air, and announce "Yoo-Hoo, look over here!!!" with this choice quote from a recent speech:

During a wide-ranging 30-minute speech on Saturday at the Hardin County Republican Party's Lincoln Day Dinner, Bunning said he supports conservative judges "and that's going to be in place very shortly because Ruth Bader Ginsburg … has cancer."

"Bad cancer. The kind that you don't get better from," he told a crowd of about 100 at the old State Theater.

"Even though she was operated on, usually, nine months is the longest that anybody would live after (being diagnosed) with pancreatic cancer," he said.

Ignoring the appalling insensitivity of the statement for a moment, and ignoring that the statistics for survival of pancreatic cancer are skewed by how often it is discovered in the late stages, Bunning is still a total moron. We have a Democratic president now, who gets to nominate a justice to fill any vacancy that might come up on the Court. We only have 41 Republican senators (assuming Norm Coleman will eventually lose the election battle in Minnesota.) So how, exactly, does Bunning think this conservative majority on the Court is going to come about? Does he honestly believe that the 41 will filibuster every liberal or moderate nominee that Obama might bring them?

Now, in addition to his apparent stupidity over how the process works, Bunning is also dancing dangerously close to the line in his barely-concealed glee over Ginsburg's health woes. Why isn't the press and public calling this guy out on his inappropriate comments? Like her or loathe her, Justice Ginsburg is still a respected jurist on the highest Court in our country. No elected public official should have the complete lack of class and grace to publicly hope for her death.

Bunning is up for re-election in 2010 and has been an attractive target in the past. He's a bad fundraiser, and prone to saying dumb and offensive things. Time magazine named him one of the 5 worst Senators in 2006, and noted that in 2004 he won by only 2 points when President Bush carried Kentucky by 20. He is not known for any legislative achievements or particular policy expertise, apart from knowing a thing or two about baseball. Even his own party appears to want him out of the race because they think he is a sitting duck.

So, here is the first big target of the 2010 election. Several good Democratic candidates are jockeying for position to take Bunning on, including the man who almost beat him in 2004. Let's make it happen.