Jobless benefits not a 'disservice'

From today's Herald-Leader:

About 18,000 Kentuckians will lose long-term unemployment benefits on Jan. 1 and another 18,000 by summer unless Congress reauthorizes the emergency program before breaking for the holidays.

In Sen. Rand Paul's world, those 18,000 Kentuckians would hustle out and find jobs.

Extending their benefits would be a "disservice" to them, Paul recently told Fox News, citing research that shows the longer someone is out of work the less likely an employer is to hire that person.

In the real world, most of the 18,000 Kentuckians would drop out of the job search and become discouraged workers. The unemployment rate might decline but the disability rolls would swell.

End GOP's endless Senate filibusters

From today's Courier-Journal:

The official government shutdown may have ended but the gridlock continues in Washington thanks to Senate Republicans who have now blocked three of three candidates President Barack Obama had nominated to the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit.

...Republicans have dug in out of sheer partisan obstruction under current rules that require 60 votes just to permit discussion of the president’s nominees to the court that considers important challenges to federal laws and regulations. (U.S. District Judge Robert L.) Wilkins’ nomination failed on a vote of 53-38.

Kentucky’s Mitch McConnell, Senate Republican leader, gloated, using his irrelevant opposition to the Affordable Care Act as an excuse.

Health law needs time to take root

From today's Herald-Leader:

(Mitch) McConnell's rants against what he calls Obamacare are purely political. He's hoping to capitalize on President Barack Obama's unpopularity in Kentucky by linking Democratic candidate Secretary of State Alison Lundergan Grimes to the president's signature achievement. He's also hoping to mollify Republican primary voters who preferred a government default to perceived government overreach.

McConnell's alternatives (interstate insurance sales, high-risk pools, employer associations and reforms to be named later) are Republican boilerplate.

They fall far short of what Kentuckians were gaining from Obama's reforms, even before the Oct. 1 opening of kynect.com. which has been enrolling McConnell's constituents at a rate of 1,000 a day.

Mitch McConnell meets the press

Today's Courier-Journal highlights Mitch McConnell's brazen hypocrisy:

The Louisville Republican, already famous for sticking to talking points and ignoring questions he doesn’t like, promptly laid down the law to the waiting press corps.

“I’m probably not going to be answering questions about anything else but I’m happy to respond to questions about Obamacare,” Mr. McConnell said, according to LEO Weekly. “As you can imagine, I prefer the news of that day to be what I’d like it to be rather than what you all may be interested in pursuing.”

Apparently those rules apply only to him. Mr. McConnell then lectured reporters on how to question Alison Lundergan Grimes, the Democrat running against him, about the health law.

Who had the worst week in Washington? Sen. Rand Paul

The Washington Post's "Worst Week in Washington" goes to Rand Paul:

First, MSNBC’s Rachel Maddow showed that a speech Paul gave supporting Ken Cuccinelli’s Virginia gubernatorial campaign contained lines cribbed from a Wikipedia entry on the film “Gattaca.” Then BuzzFeed and Politico got in on the act, noting that Paul had taken chunks of text from publications by the Heritage Foundation and the Cato Institute, among other sources.

...“To tell you the truth, people can think what they want, I can go back to being a doctor anytime, if they’re tired of me,” Paul told the New York Times. “I’ll go back to being a doctor, and I’ll be perfectly content.” Very presidential of him.

...Rand Paul, for looking like a copycat when people like their presidential candidates to be original, you had the worst week in Washington. Congrats, or something.

Rand Theft Caught'O

The Daily Show takes on the Rand Paul plagiarism scandal. Check it out!

Paul's pouty reaction

Today's Herald-Leader discusses Rand Paul's childish response to the plagiarism charges against him:

Trying to put this behind him, Paul said that he and his staff will attribute sources "if it will make people leave me the hell alone."

A curious remark for someone who has sought attention at every turn, grandstanding at Senate hearings, touring television talk shows, accepting speaking invitations in states critical to a presidential bid.

Paul's sense of self-grandeur is so great that, like a pouting child, he threatened to leave politics altogether if everyone keeps being mean to him. "People can think what they want. I can go back to being a doctor any time," he said.

Sen. Rand Paul-agiarism

From today's Courier-Journal:

In two speeches (Rand Paul) has taken phrases and sentences directly from the website Wikipedia. In another, he took words from an Associated Press article and didn’t give credit. In a book, he lifted three pages from reports written by conservative and libertarian think tanks like the Heritage Foundation and the Cato Institute.

...The real insult here is that Mr. Paul would expect voters to believe his half-baked, nutty explanations. The real insult is that he would expect us to believe he’s not at fault and this is the result of partisan opponents.

But the biggest insult is that he would use a writer’s or researcher’s words, claim them as his own and expect everyone to look away when he gets caught.

McConnell's plan: Cut Social Security and Medicare

$24 Billion... up in smoke. Washington at its worst. And now? Mitch McConnell and the Tea Party in Washington are demanding painful cuts to Social Security and Medicare. Kentucky seniors could pay $6,000 more a year. Cutting Social Security and Medicare may be Mitch McConnell's plan. Tell him, it's not yours!

'Sen. Moonbeam' speaks

A great editorial from the Courier-Journal:

At a Liberty University speech (Rand Paul) warned students that “in your lifetime” society could eliminate the weak or less intelligent by culling inferior DNA.

Possible? Yes. But such eugenics programs have been discredited by scientists, ethicists and most everyone, and are not on the front burner of political thought today.

...as a Forum Flashes colleague noted, the choice of subject matter seemed so politically random: “It’s like he watched ‘Gattaca’ the night before, and said, ‘Dude, we NEED to talk about this, like, RIGHT NOW.’ ”

What will Rand be for halloween?

The Herald-Leader comments on Rand Paul's speech at right-wing Liberty University:

Liberty U. was a welcoming neighborhood for Paul, one where he could drop the I'm-really-rational guise of a presidential candidate and let loose.

That he did with an anti-abortion screed that equated abortion with genetic engineering to create a master race.

To illustrate this doomsday eugenics scenario, Paul recounted the storyline of a 1997 movie flop, Gattica, in which infants get thumbs up or down based on their genetic traits.

Where’d you get your speech, Rand?

Rachel Maddow catches Rand Paul plagiarizing Wikipedia. Check out the video below:

Kentucky Senator Rand Paul: Onward, Christian soldiers

From today's Courier-Journal:

In the Oct. 11 speech (at the Values Voter Summit in Washington), Dr. Paul, a Bowling Green tea party Republican and ophthalmologist, claimed that Muslims are waging a war on Christianity.

“Across the globe, Christians are under attack as if we lived in the Middle Ages,” he said, adding “Christians should be prepared for war!”

...Dr. Paul’s extreme comments have no place in reasoned discourse. Nor are they befitting a U.S. senator, let alone an aspiring presidential candidate.

A health care governor

Gov Beshear gets some well-deserved praise in today's Courier-Journal:

Two weeks after the launch of Kynect, Kentucky’s online health exchange where people can shop for health insurance, it’s off to a successful start.

It’s also attracting favorable national attention. And so is Gov. Steve Beshear, who launched Kentucky’s site and accepted the federal expansion of Medicaid under the Affordable Care Act despite opposition of some Republicans in the General Assembly.

...Beshear, whose legacy may well become that of expanding care and improving health statewide, said political debate over the law wasn’t a factor for him.

“This is about our people,” he said. “This is what they need.”

McConnell seeks unlimited donations

Another good editorial from the Herald-Leader:

The latest chapter in Democracy Devolves: Selling Government to the Highest Bidders unfolded in arguments before the U.S. Supreme Court this week. As usual, Kentucky's Sen. Mitch McConnell played a starring role.

At issue in McCutcheon v. Federal Election Commission is the limit on total contributions by an individual. The limit for the current two-year period is $123,200 — that's $48,600 to federal candidates and $74,600 to political party committees, far more than all but the richest Americans could afford.

The McCutcheon plaintiffs, including the Republican National Committee, are not asking the court to strike down the $5,200 limit on how much an individual can contribute to any one candidate in an election cycle.

But McConnell is. The Supreme Court granted the Republican Senate leader special status to seek an end to all limits on contributions to candidates and parties.

Put budget issues to vote in House

A good editorial about the government shutdown from the Herald-Leader:

Largely lost in the commotion, the Democratic Senate has approved temporarily extending the sequester cuts, a concession Republicans could have claimed as a victory.

Meanwhile, (Rand) Paul has joined the GOP's magical-thinking caucus, suddenly insisting that failure to raise the debt ceiling wouldn't really be a default or even that big of a deal.

Paul's view, we should stress, is not shared by economists, credit rating agencies or foreign governments, all of whom see failure to raise the debt ceiling as a precursor to global depression.

The longer shutdown is, the worse it'll be

Even the right-wing Enquirer thinks John Boehner should allow a vote on a clean continuing resolution to fund the government. This editorial appeared in today's paper:

Raising the debt limit is not a bargaining chip. The country has already racked up the debt, and it needs to be paid. Not doing so would be like ringing up thousands of dollars on a credit card and then refusing to pay it. That will ruin your credit rating.

Reopening the government is not a bargaining chip. We are beginning to see all the ways a functioning government affects our lives. One of the largest employers in Covington, the Internal Revenue Service, is shut down, affecting many of the surrounding businesses that rely on its 3,000 workers, says Northern Kentucky Chamber President Steve Stevens. Home sales are being held up just as the market is returning because some required documents are not being processed.

Obamacare is not a bargaining chip. The health care law was passed more than three years ago. It has a long timetable for full implementation, but it has already started. It was upheld by the U.S. Supreme Court and has withstood more than 40 votes by the U.S. House to gut it. It is the law of the land and if the Congress wants to change it, its members can do that. But do it the right way, by amending the legislation, not by holding the country hostage.

So, there is demand for health care

A good editorial from the Herald-Leader:

As Republicans shut down the U.S. government last week because they couldn't block the Affordable Care Act, Americans in droves were voting with their feet.

Or, more precisely, with their fingertips on computer keyboards as visitors swamped the online health insurance marketplaces that opened Oct. 1.

Millions of people couldn't wait to shop for affordable health insurance. Who'd have thought it?

Not the Republican detractors, including our own Sen. Mitch McConnell, who saw the overwhelmed websites as a sign of failure — like a "trip to the DMV," McConnell sniffed — rather than a sign of pent-up demand.

Health care a hit, shutdown is not

Today's Courier-Journal included this editorial on Mitch McConnell's and Rand Paul's constant bashing of Obamacare:

Early returns are in and it appears people are voting overwhelmingly in favor of the (Affordable Care Act) that will allow them to get decent, affordable health coverage.

And all this began on the first full day of the federal government shutdown, forced by a band of Republican House extremists trying to dismantle the health care law, loudly proclaiming the people don’t want it.

Perhaps they should stop listening to each other and the tea party opponents of the law and listen to the people in their districts who are desperate for health care and willing to pay what they can afford.

Budget tantrum is irresponsible

A good editorial from the Enquirer:

U.S. Reps. Thomas Massie, Steve Chabot, Brad Wenstrup and other local officials have been vocal in the effort to defund Obamacare. Now they are foolishly linking it to efforts to shut down the federal government.

...Polls show that voters – even those opposed to Obamacare – do not want the federal government to shut down. They’d prefer their elected officials to be working on the priorities they were sent to Washington to fight for: job creation, national security, immigration and other issues.

...In the case of the Affordable Care Act, our democracy worked the way it’s supposed to. Now opponents must be willing to accept a law they don’t like. To throw a tantrum and threaten the national economy because they don’t agree with the results of the process is irresponsible, dangerous and unworthy of the office the voters elected them to.

A very cruel cut

From today's Courier-Journal:

As more Kentuckians slide into poverty, five of our state’s six congressmen voted Thursday to slash funding for food stamps, an action that would impoverish even more of their constituents.

In a stunningly cruel vote, Republican Reps. Andy Barr, Brett Guthrie, Thomas Massie, Hal Rogers and Ed Whitfield joined most of their GOP colleagues to pass a bill to cut $40 billion over the next 10 years from the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, or SNAP.

...The news comes as the U.S. Census reports that in much of the nation, the poverty rate remained stubbornly unchanged but worsened in Kentucky where about one-fifth of 4.3 million residents live in poverty, The Courier-Journal’s Chris Kenning reported Thursday. For a family of four, the poverty line is a whopping annual income of about $23,500 or less.

McConnell's spiel offers no hope

A good editorial from the Herald-Leader:

(Mitch) McConnell had nothing new to propose. He was rehashing the same old stuff, making yet another speech in which he blamed every single one of Kentucky's 6,000-plus unemployed coal miners on President Barack Obama and the Environmental Protection Agency.

...We'd expect McConnell and other politicians to defend coal — while working on economic alternatives. Bashing Obama and the EPA has been a winning political formula in Kentucky. But the blame game's getting old. By November 2014, voters may well want something new.

Eastern Kentucky knows it must plan beyond coal. Now would be a great time for McConnell to start offering some real ideas and support.

Ballots, not bullets

A great editorial from the Courier-Journal:

Rand Paul, the junior senator from Kentucky and speculative Republican presidential candidate, is capable of talking a good game and making sense, as he did Monday in Louisville when he discussed a variety of issues. But sooner or later, the fringe starts to show, as it must. He cannot help revealing his truest self — and that’s the one to which voters should pay attention.

It happened again with the Louisville audience, in which he talked about getting rid of mandatory minimum sentences and restoring voting rights to convicted felons who complete their sentences. Common sense consensus can and does form around these issues.

But on the very day that another mass shooting took the lives of another 12 innocent bystanders, as well as that of the gunman who mowed them down, Sen. Paul included in his magnanimous remarks his support for restoring gun ownership rights to felons who had served their sentences.

The Colbert Report takes on Rand Paul

From last night's Colbert Report: Senator Rand Paul says no to diplomacy, no to Obama's plan and no to regime change in Syria.

The missing Sen. Mitch McConnell

A good editorial from the Courier-Journal:

Mr. McConnell, leader of the Senate’s Republican minority, is the last of the four top party leaders in Congress to announce whether the United States should launch a military strike (in Syria).

...Yet Mr. McConnell used his appearance on the Senate floor Tuesday to denounce President Obama — who had called early on for military action — for “timid, reluctant leadership.”

Mr. McConnell’s own timidity on this pressing international crisis is deplorable. It’s even more deplorable that, in an election season, he tried to shift the blame elsewhere.

Empty dress? Empty rhetoric

An editorial from today's Courier-Journal:

Team Mitch’s dubious efforts to win over women took another hit this week after a top Republican re-election flack referred to the female Democrat seeking to unseat U.S. Sen. Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., as “an empty dress.”

...Even Matt Bevin, the Republican challenging Mr. McConnell in the primary, chivalrously spoke up on her behalf, saying as a married father of six daughters, he found the comments “highly offensive.”

The Republican establishment blasted Mr. Bevin for aiding and abetting the enemy. But Mr. Bevin, to his credit, is standing his ground on his party’s blundering efforts to win back women voters, commenting: “That‘s not the way to bridge the gap.”

Wooing women

A very good editorial from today's Courier-Journal:

To burnish his image, Mr. McConnell, a Louisville Republican, staged an event to showcase his support among some women, starting with his wife, former Labor Secretary Elaine Chao.

...Press material noted Mr. McConnell was a co-sponsor of the original Violence Against Women Act, first proposed in 1990 by then-Sen. Joe Biden.

But when the legislation later became law, Mr. McConnell voted against it. And this year, he voted against reauthorization of the act aimed at reducing domestic violence and sexual assault, prompting an outpouring of criticism.

The Latest Anti-Woman Insult from Mitch McConnell

Today the DSCC issued a press release regarding Mitch McConnell's disregard for women's issues:

Mitch McConnell’s shameful hypocrisy towards Kentucky women has reached a new level of ugliness. Yesterday, McConnell announced that he will launch “Women for Team Mitch” while simultaneously touting the coming endorsement of Mike Huckabee, a strong supporter of Todd Akin and longtime champion of extremist, anti-woman policies.

Mike Huckabee was one of Todd Akin’s strongest supporters in 2012, even after Akin’s “legitimate rape” comments, using his radio show to bolster Akin and encourage him to stay in the race. And why wouldn’t he? Throughout his career, Huckabee has advocated for extreme policies that would set women back decades, including the claim that “most” single moms “would rather be married and have a nice ‘Leave It To Beaver’ home,” endorsing a Baptist church statement saying that women should "graciously submit" to their husbands, and as governor directing the Medicaid office to deny payment for an abortion for a 15-year-old teenager who had been raped by her stepfather.

Click here to read the entire press release.

Tell Mitch McConnell: Don't Cut Social Security

A great new ad from the Progressive Change Campaign Committee:

Rand Paul: ‘I Don’t Think There Is Any Particular Evidence’ Of Voter Suppression

A great catch by ThinkProgress:

Sen. Rand Paul (R-KY), a tea party senator with a long history of opposition to civil rights laws, told an audience in Louisville, Kentucky on Wednesday that there is no evidence of black voters being excluded from the franchise. According to local NPR host Phillip Bailey, Paul said that he does not believe “there is any particular evidence of polls barring African Americans from voting,” during a speech to the non-partisan Louisville Forum.

If Paul is not aware of the evidence indicating widespread efforts to prevent African Americans from voting, then he must not be looking very hard. During the 2012 election, black and Hispanic voters waited nearly twice as long to cast a ballot as white voters. In Florida, lines of up to six hours led an estimated 201,000 people to become frustrated and leave the polls. These lines existed largely because of a voter suppression bill signed into law by Gov. Rick Scott (R-FL) which reduced early voting hours in the state. After the election, top Republicans admitted that the purpose of cutting early voting was to reduce Democratic turnout. One Republican operative conceded that early voting was cut on the Sunday proceeding Election Day because “that’s a big day when the black churches organize themselves.”

A nose-holder of a race

A great editorial in today's Courier-Journal:

Kentucky’s senior senator Mitch McConnell already was in “double trouble,” as some political writers have observed, with both a strong Democratic opponent on the left and a Republican tea party challenger to the right.

Now Mr. McConnell is getting scorn from his own campaign manager, who admits “I’m sort of holding my nose” as he works to re-elect the Republican seeking a sixth U.S. Senate term in 2014.

True, Mr. McConnell is viewed as one of the most unpopular political figures in Washington. But it’s hitting a new low when even his own campaign manager, Jesse Benton, expresses distaste.

Campaign manager on working for Mitch McConnell: ‘Holding my nose’

Apparently even Mitch McConnell's campaign manager thinks Mitch stinks:

The campaign manager for Republican U.S. Sen. Mitch McConnell said in a taped phone conversation earlier this year that he is “sort of holding my nose for two years” as he works for McConnell’s 2014 re-election bid.

...“Between you and me I’m sort of holding my nose for two years because what we’re doing here is going to be a big benefit for Rand in 2016,” Benton said on the recording. “That’s my long vision.”

The Daily Show reports on Kentucky state government

In case you missed it: Here's the Daily Show clip featuring Damon Thayer.

Ky. Republicans should know food stamps feed their young and elderly constituents

A good editorial from the Herald-Leader:

It has been a month since the U.S. House, including all of Kentucky's Republicans, abandoned a 40-year practice by dropping food stamps from the farm bill.

...While House Republicans created more uncertainty for the poor, they fattened agriculture subsidies, the vast majority of which go to the largest operations. House Republicans even did away with a limit approved by the Senate on federal farm aid to people making more than $750,000 a year.

All five of Kentucky's Republicans — Reps. Ed Whitfield, Brett Guthrie, Thomas Massie, Andy Barr and Rogers — put lucrative subsidies for Big Agriculture above feeding their needy constituents. Kentucky's lone Democrat, John Yarmuth of Louisville, opposed the bill.

Seeking a senator

An editorial in today's Courier-Journal:

(Mitch) McConnell, who brags about his “Whac-a-Mole” tactics, already has come out swinging.

His campaign spokesman derided Mr. Bevin, who is a New Hampshire native and moved to Louisville in 1999, as “an East Coast con man.” He has ridiculed Ms. Grimes as the liberal candidate of President Barack Obama.

...In the coming months (Mr. McConnell), instead of just tearing down opponents why not talk about who you are, what you believe and what you have done for Kentucky?

McConnell risks negativity backlash

An editorial in today's Herald-Leader:

(Mitch) McConnell is being so petty and dismissive toward his challengers — "nuisance" was Team Mitch's word for Republican Matt Bevin who entered the race this week — that voters might wonder: Does McConnell think that, just because he's been there 30 years, he owns a seat in the U.S. Senate?

Kentuckians own that Senate seat.

...Voters are left to wonder why McConnell has had 30 years in the Senate, the last four as the No. 1 Republican, but isn't highlighting his accomplishments.

Rand Paul's ditching the 'Southern Avenger' is too little, too late

From today's Courier-Journal:

Kentucky’s junior U.S. Sen. Rand Paul finally has shed himself of the “Southern Avenger.”

The Avenger, Sen. Paul explained, had become a “distraction.”

A “distraction?” Either Sen. Paul has developed new skills at understatement or he is stunningly clueless about what’s wrong with hiring Confederate sympathizer and former radio shock jock Jack Hunter as social media director.

McConnell Obstructing Bipartisan Plan To Reduce Veterans Backlog

Today the DSCC issued a press release on Mitch's latest hypocritical statement:

Mitch McConnell, the self-proclaimed "proud guardian of gridlock," is now lying to Kentucky veterans. In a speech this morning, McConnell called the VA backlog a "national disgrace," but failed to mention that he actually voted against a bipartisan ten point plan to reduce the backlog problem. A majority of Republicans on the Appropriations Committee opposed McConnell and supported the proposal.

"Mitch McConnell's insatiable thirst for gridlock and obstruction has hurt Kentucky veterans, and now McConnell is blatantly lying about it," said Justin Barasky, National Press Secretary at the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee. "The fact is Mitch McConnell voted against a bipartisan '10 point plan' that would reduce the backlog. Instead of fighting for veterans Mitch McConnell is pushing partisan political gridlock in Washington."

Click here to read the entire press release.

Senator Mitch McConnell is MIA

A superb editorial in today's Courier-Journal:

It takes a lot of brass to obstruct a deal, get left out of it, vote against it, yet bask in shared credit for it.

But that is exactly what Kentucky’s senior Sen. Mitch McConnell did this week after some of his more rational Republican colleagues in the U.S. Senate pushed him aside to broker an agreement with Democrats to finally begin approving stalled executive branch appointees of President Barack Obama.

Mr. McConnell, minority leader of Senate Republicans, became even too obstructive for his own colleagues this week as they sought to end the endless GOP filibusters that have ground Washington to a halt.

Mitch McConnell Is Hurting Kentucky Workers With Unprecedented Levels Of Obstruction

Today the DSCC issued a press release on Mitch McConnell's obstructionism:

During his time as minority leader, McConnell has voted to block efforts to create jobs, provide incentives for businesses who don’t offshore, extend unemployment insurance, and pass a minimum wage increase. This week McConnell once again took aim at Kentucky’s middle class, refusing to join 17 other Republican Senators to end the filibuster of Richard Cordray as Director of the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau.

Mitch McConnell voted to block the American Jobs Act which would have meant hundreds of billions in tax incentives and infrastructure investments. Worse, when the U.S. Senate took up legislation to help companies cover the cost of moving workers back to the U.S. from overseas and provide incentives to businesses replacing overseas workers with jobs here at home, McConnell blocked that as well.

During the height of the economic crisis Mitch McConnell repeatedly voted to block efforts to help unemployed workers and raise the minimum wage. On legislation extending unemployment insurance, making unemployment benefits retroactive, and extending the homebuyer tax credit, McConnell chose gridlock and obstruction instead of Kentucky families.

Click here to read the entire release.

Rand Paul stands by his man at own peril

A good editorial in today's Courier-Journal:

Last week came the latest embarrassment, astonishing news that Sen. Paul employs a former radio shock jock and Confederate sympathizer Jack Hunter, who calls himself the “Southern Avenger,” has appeared in public in a Confederate flag mask, boasted of secessionist views and venerates John Wilkes Booth, the assassin of President Abraham Lincoln.

...Mr. Hunter, who claimed to toast John Wilkes Booth every year on his birthday, also seemed OK with killing a president who holds objectionable views — such as saving the Union while abolishing slavery. Sen. Paul, with well-known presidential aspirations, might be a little nervous about having a guy like that on staff.

But the much larger issue is Sen. Paul’s shocking lapse of judgment in hiring Mr. Hunter, then insisting on keeping him on staff after reports surfaced about his extremist views.

Paul's aide raises questions for him; 'Southern Avenger' tarnishes image

A great editorial in today's Herald-Leader:

This week, a conservative website broke the story that Jack Hunter, the director of new media on (Rand Paul's) staff who also co-authored a book with him, has a history that is decidedly at odds with most notions of inclusivity.

..."John Wilkes Booth's heart was in the right place. The Southern Avenger does regret that Lincoln's murder automatically turned him into a martyr," Hunter said in 2004. He also has written that he raises a toast to Booth annually on the assassin's birthday.

...It's time for Paul to decide whether he'll retain among his closest advisers a man who was willing to fan racial conflict and celebrate a presidential assassin just to make a buck, or if he wants to convince the public that his professed inclusivity is something more than political posturing.

McConnell Mum on Violence Against Women

Today the DSCC issued a press release about Mitch McConnell's record on women's issues:

Mitch McConnell made it clear last week that he has no interest in fighting for Kentucky women. While bragging about a $38 million earmark he secured for a project led by a campaign donor, McConnell refused to even answer a question from one of the leading Kentucky political reporters about how he could oppose the Violence Against Women Act.

Watch as McConnell offers Kentucky women nothing but a blank stare when asked about the Violence Against Women Act and women’s issues:

WHAS’s Joe Arnold: Given the demographic difference between you and Ms. Grimes, in terms of her age versus yours, as well as the fact that she’s already highlighted that she’s a woman... brought up like the Violence Against Women Act... How will you counter that?

McConnell: Well as Ronald Reagan famously said once, I won’t use my opponent’s youth and inexperience as an issue in this campaign.

Arnold: What about women’s issues?

McConnell: (silence)

Click here to read the entire press release.

Rand Paul aide has history of neo-Confederate sympathies, inflammatory statements

An interesting article in the Washington Free Beacon:

A close aide to Sen. Rand Paul (R., Ky.) who co-wrote the senator’s 2011 book spent years working as a pro-secessionist radio pundit and neo-Confederate activist, raising questions about whether Paul will be able to transcend the same fringe-figure associations that dogged his father’s political career.

Paul hired Jack Hunter, 39, to help write his book The Tea Party Goes to Washington during his 2010 Senate run. Hunter joined Paul’s office as his social media director in August 2012.

...while in his 20s, Hunter was a chairman in the League of the South, which “advocates the secession and subsequent independence of the Southern States from this forced union and the formation of a Southern republic.”

Filibustering our democracy

A good editorial from today's Herald-Leader:

"Matters of this level of controversy always require 60 votes," (Mitch McConnell) nonchalantly noted one dreary December day, blocking a bill that would have ended last year's debt ceiling crisis by yielding authority to the president.

But the bill that McConnell had just filibustered should have been utterly uncontroversial to him — it was his own.

McConnell's unprecedented self-filibuster — the senatorial equivalent of punching oneself in the face — was just the most glaringly disingenuous maneuver in the recent, Republican-led spate of obstructionism in the Senate.

Kentucky's busy senators, Mitch McConnell and Rand Paul

A good editorial in today's Courier-Journal:

Mr. McConnell wasn’t too busy (last) week to send a bizarre letter to commissioners of the nation’s major sports leagues, bullying them to stay out of promoting health care reform, which became law in 2010 and will be more widely accessible Oct. 1 through state health insurance exchanges.

...Mr. Paul found time last week to comment on last week’s landmark Supreme Court ruling striking down the federal law against same-sex marriage. Unfortunately, his comments included wondering whether the ruling could lead to marriage between humans and, well, non-humans.

We’d all be better off if Kentucky’s senators could stick to business — the business of working on behalf of Kentucky voters who elected them.

Yet more hypocrisy from Mitch McConnell

An update on yesterday's post about Mitch's hypocrisy...

On Monday, after Alison Lundergan Grimes announced her intention to run against Mitch McConnell in 2014's Senate race, Mitch McConnell had this to say:

"I look forward to a respectful exchange of ideas."

The very next day, Mitch released a bizarre attack ad against Alison on his YouTube channel.

Such a "respectful exchange of ideas," right?

Well, today brings us yet another bizarre attack ad from Mitch McConnell -- this time attacking Alison for not having air-conditioning in the room in which she announced her Senate bid.

If this is what Mitch McConnell thinks real Kentuckians care about, then he's obviously been in Washington DC too long.

More hypocrisy from Mitch McConnell

Yesterday, after Alison Lundergan Grimes announced her intention to run against Mitch McConnell in 2014's Senate race, Mitch McConnell had this to say:

"I look forward to a respectful exchange of ideas."

Today, just one day later, Mitch McConnell released a bizarre attack ad against Alison on his YouTube channel.

So much for that "respectful exchange of ideas," eh Mitch?

Leaving flat earth to save the earth

An editorial in today's Courier-Journal:

Predictably, President Barack Obama’s forceful call last week for steps to slow global warming, in part by cutting emissions from coal-burning power plants, was met with a blast of hot air from Kentucky’s two U.S. senators.

...Instead of working to position Kentucky for a future not so dependent on a single — and shrinking — industry, (Mitch McConnell and Rand Paul) are among leaders who fall back on empty rhetoric about the “war on coal” with little to offer Kentucky’s working people in terms of future solutions.

...Too many are willing to bet against the future, among them Senators McConnell and Paul, who instead choose short-term political exploitation.

How long is too long in Washington?

An ad from Senate Majority PAC makes a strong case that it's time for Mitch to move on.

Gone fishing

From today's Courier-Journal:

(Mitch) McConnell, considered the architect of obstruction in Washington, moved fast after learning the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers planned to restrict fishing close to dams along the Cumberland River in Kentucky and Tennessee because people too close to the dams kept dying in boating accidents.

...(Rand) Paul, a co-sponsor, denounced “bureaucratic overreach.”

It would be nice to see them just as outraged over the deep federal spending cuts they helped cause that now are costing so many federal workers in Kentucky lost pay from furloughs.

What Happened? Mitch McConnell Used to Want a Budget

A very good video from the Senate Democrats, highlighting Mitch McConnell's blatant hypocrisy:

State loan raises troubling issues

An editorial from today's Herald-Leader:

A state decision to lend $2.5 million set aside for Kentucky agriculture to a Louisville company that manages coal waste from power plants raises several concerns...

As The Courier-Journal's James Bruggers reported, the board (of the Kentucky Agriculture Finance Corp.) approved the loan despite assurances from University of Kentucky soil and crop scientists that Kentucky soils are not deficient in sulfur and that adding sulfur to fields would be a waste of money for most Kentucky farmers.

(Agriculture Commissioner James) Comer, a former legislator who has said the Clean Air Act has left most Kentucky soils nutritionally deficient by reducing sulfur spread by smokestacks, told Bruggers that he doesn't take advice from "research universities," preferring to listen to "actual farmers and fertilizer dealers."

Watergate Amnesia, the 'Nixonian' Slur and Other Big Lies

A very good column by Joe Conason:

Let's state this very simply, so everybody will understand. The notion that Barack Obama is "Nixonian" — or that his administration's recent troubles bear any resemblance to "Watergate" — is the biggest media lie since the phony "Whitewater scandal" crested during the Clinton presidency.

Fraudulent as it is, we have listened repeatedly to versions of this bogus comparison uttered by figures as diverse as former Fox News commentator Dick Morris and Bob Woodward of the Washington Post, alongside a phalanx of Republican politicians, including Senator Lindsey Graham and Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell — whose latest attack ad directly links Obama with Nixon.

Only in a country afflicted with chronic historical amnesia could they issue such accusations without shame or embarrassment. Only under those circumstances could the Republicans continue their fitful fabrication of a "Democratic Watergate" without fear of being laughed off the stage. It is a project that they will never grow tired of pursuing.

McConnell's weak case to limit campaign financial disclosure

A great editorial in today's Herald-Leader:

McConnell, in an op-ed published last week in The Washington Post, followed admirably circuitous reasoning to use the scandal involving the IRS targeting Tea Party groups as a launching point for an argument that landed on limiting public information about political contributors.

McConnell's target was what he terms "the so-called Disclose Act," a measure that was introduced and died in 2010 as a response to the floodgates of corporate money opened up by the Supreme Court's Citizens United decision that same year. Briefly, the act would prohibit corporations with significant foreign ownership from contributing to U.S. campaigns, give the public access to information about corporate and interest-group campaign expenditures, and require large organizations that made political ads to disclose their membership.

...There are (good) reasons for Congress to write laws that ensure we know who is paying for the messages that bombard us. This is a democracy; it's our government. Show us the money that sets it all in motion, and tell us where it comes from.

Collect taxes from online sales

Today's Herald-Leader exposes Thomas Massie's dishonest talking points about the Marketplace Fairness Act:

Rep. Thomas Massie, R-Vanceburg, calls (the Marketplace Fairness bill) a "tax mandate," even though the bill has nothing to do with raising, or lowering, taxes, just collecting them. Massie's over-the-top rhetoric against the measure includes charging that it "changes the very constitutional fabric of the United States."

...this bill is about leveling the playing field for retailers who provide services, employ people and pay payroll and real estate taxes in our communities.

And, to the extent that it's about taxes, it would help avoid raising or creating them by collecting those we already have on the books.

Governor Beshear on Medicaid Expansion

Medicaid expansion right for Ky.

From the Herald-Leader:

Gov. Steve Beshear made the right choice — the only choice, really — by expanding Medicaid.

...By next year, for the first time, all Kentuckians could have access to affordable health care. No wonder Beshear choked up making the announcement.

...Republicans in Congress and the legislature will keep sniping and threatening to withhold funding. They also should think of their constituents, Kentuckians who are suffering more and dying sooner than they should have to.

Huge step toward better health

From today's Courier-Journal:

The joy was nearly palpable Thursday as Gov. Steve Beshear stepped forward to make his long-awaited announcement that Kentucky indeed will accept the expansion of Medicaid offered through the Affordable Care Act.

...unlike such antagonists, including Kentucky’s Sen. Mitch McConnell, the leader of Senate Republicans, a virtual army of advocates and experts in Kentucky stand ready to make health care reform work because they understand the desperate need of so many.

They know well the suffering of low-wage workers with no health coverage, older citizens who’ve lost jobs and health benefits, the bills that haunt people forced to seek care for a serious illness but with no way to pay.

Senate Republicans Demanded The Budget Process They Are Now Obstructing

Via ThinkProgress:

Senate Democrats passed a budget for the first time in four years earlier this year, a move that would seemingly please the Republicans who spent the last four years reminding everyone of the fact that the Senate hadn’t done so. But now, with the House and Senate sitting on differing budget proposals, Senate Republicans have blocked four efforts to form a conference committee that would be tasked with forming a compromise budget.

Here are seven times Republicans have chastised Senate Democrats for not passing a budget since September of last year (and assuredly, it’s not a comprehensive list), including two instances in which Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY) blasted them for not moving to the type of bicameral conference committee the Republicans are now blocking...

The reasons why the GOP doesn’t want to go to conference is clear: they don’t want to consider any compromise that may include new revenues (the Senate budget raised $975 billion) or that raises the debt ceiling, which will need to be upped before October at the latest. Previous deals to reduce the deficit have been comprised primarily of spending cuts, and any further deficit reduction would have to be 90 percent revenues to bring balance to the total package of reductions since President Obama took office.

Deadbeat mines, delinquent fines

An editorial in today's Courier-Journal:

...most lawmakers at the state and federal level have shown no regard for worker safety or toughening safety standards to crack down on scofflaw miners.

...Among them are Kentucky Senators Mitch McConnell and Rand Paul, Republicans who recently introduced a bill falsely named the Coal Jobs Protection Act, aimed at speeding up approval of mining permits and getting the government off the backs of the industry.

The two senators seem indifferent to the fact that Kentucky leads the nation in delinquent fines owed by mine operators fined for safety violations. Kentucky mines owe $29.2 million of $73.6 million owed nationwide.

Rand Paul’s ‘outreach’ at Howard University a missed opportunity

Today's column from Leonard Pitts:

Rand Paul did just fine at Howard University, thank you very much. Or at least, that’s how he remembers it.

Paul, GOP senator from Kentucky, told the Christian Science Monitor on Wednesday that his recent visit to Howard didn’t go so bad at all. He said any perception to the contrary was created by — all together now — the “left-wing media.”

...it wasn’t left-wing media that lied to those students. “I’ve never wavered in my support for civil rights or the Civil Rights Act,” claimed Paul who, in fact, told MSNBC’s Rachel Maddow in 2010 that the act overreached in telling private businesses they could not discriminate against black people.

Rand Paul's outreach

An editorial in today's Herald-Leader:

Sen. Rand Paul should keep visiting traditionally black colleges and universities — not because he'll win many converts with his Republicans-freed-the-slaves spiel but because he might learn something.

He might start to understand, for example, that new voter ID laws, voter purges and other obstacles erected by Republican legislatures and secretaries of state are updated versions of the literacy tests and poll taxes that southern Democrats once used to suppress the black vote.

...If Paul really wants blacks to trust the GOP, however, he should work to make voting easier, not harder. He also should chide fellow Republicans whose voter-suppression tactics channel the ugliness of the segregated South.

Coal's forecast cold in E. Ky.

An editorial in today's Herald-Leader:

Sen. Mitch McConnell and other Republicans gave the old "war on coal" canard a workout last week as Gina McCarthy, President Barack Obama's pick to head the Environmental Protection Agency, came up for a confirmation hearing.

In a statement, McConnell warned that McCarthy "would continue to foster this administration's radical environmental and anti-coal jobs agenda."

The environmental non-profit Appalachian Voices anticipated this line of attack and analyzed data from the U.S. Mine Safety and Health Administration, and, lo and behold, more people on average have been employed mining and processing coal during Obama's presidency than during that of his coal-friendly, regulation-averse predecessor, George W. Bush.

Rand Paul has lotsa 'splaining to do

Today's column from Clarence Page:

(Rand) Paul looked surprised at Howard when, after he asked if anyone knew that the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People had been founded by Republicans, his audience responded with a resoundingly impatient "Yes!"

"We know our history," one student shouted. Unfortunately, Paul didn't. He had to be prompted from the audience with the name of Massachusetts Republican Edward Brooke, the first African-American to be elected to the U.S. Senate by popular vote — and Paul still mangled it twice as "Edwin Brooks."

Worse, he expounded at length on the historically incorrect narrative that conservatives often give, that blacks left the party of Abraham Lincoln to follow Franklin D. Roosevelt's promise of "unlimited federal assistance," while Republicans only have the "less tangible... promise of equalizing opportunity through free markets."

Guess Who's Coming to Howard

The Daily Show reports on Rand Paul's recent visit to Howard University:

The new McConnell

From the Herald-Leader:

(Mitch) McConnell's office put out a press release this week announcing that the Senate's Republican leader had joined Sen. Marco Rubio, R-Florida, in introducing the Returned Exclusively for Unpaid National Debt (REFUND) Act.

The press release says it allows states to identify and — get this — "return unwanted federal funds to the Treasury to help pay down our deficits and debt."

We don't have to explain why a debt-reduction strategy based on the states returning "unwanted" federal money is ridiculous.

Rand Paul’s rewriting of his own remarks on the Civil Rights Act

From the Washington Post's Fact Checker:

(Rand) Paul, a potential GOP candidate for the 2016 presidential election, gave an interesting speech on Wednesday to historically black Howard University, but his remarks were overshadowed by his attempt to explain the controversy over his 2010 comments on the landmark Civil Rights Act of 1964.

“I have never wavered in my support for civil rights and the Civil Rights Act,” he said in his speech. “The dispute, if there is one, has always been about how much of the remedy should come under federal or state or private purview.”

...Paul is rewriting history here. We don’t see anywhere in these interviews “an extended conversation about the ramifications beyond race,” at least in the way that Paul describes it at Howard University.

...We were tempted to give this Four Pinocchios but some of his language at Howard appears to be a product of fuzzy thinking. Still, Paul does earn Three Pinocchios for trying to recast and essentially erase what he said in 2010. It would be better to own up to his mistake — if he now thinks it was one — rather than sugarcoat it.

Rand Paul seeks to remake self, GOP

From today's Courier-Journal:

Kentucky Sen. Rand Paul’s campaign to reinvent himself — and his Republican Party — rolled on this week with his appearance at Howard University, the historically African-American college in Washington, D.C.

But students he spoke to weren’t fooled and the public shouldn’t be either.

...his biggest hurdle was trying to convince the crowd that he is a stalwart supporter of the 1964 Civil Rights Act, despite past comments to the contrary including to The Courier-Journal Editorial Board in 2010.

CREW Files FBI and Ethics Complaints Against McConnell

A press release from Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington:

Washington, D.C. — Today, Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington (CREW) asked the FBI and the Senate Select Committee on Ethics to investigate whether Sen. Mitch McConnell (R-KY) violated federal law and Senate rules by misusing Senate staff or resources to conduct opposition research on potential campaign opponents.

According to a report in Mother Jones, on February 2, 2013, Sen. McConnell met with aides to discuss research they had conducted about potential Democratic opponents, including actress Ashley Judd and Kentucky Secretary of State Alison Lundergan Grimes. The meeting was surreptitiously taped and a copy of the recording was later posted online.

The recording appears to reveal that Senate staff members conducted the campaign research, potentially violating federal law and Senate ethics rules.

“Using taxpayer-funded resources to pay staffers to dig up dirt on political opponents isn’t just an ethics violation, it’s a federal crime,” said CREW Executive Director Melanie Sloan. “As Sen. McConnell requested, the FBI is investigating the recording. A thorough and fair investigation necessitates the bureau also inquire into whether Sen. McConnell himself violated the law.”

In the recording, an unnamed presenter thanked the individuals who conducted the research, including “LAs,” an acronym for legislative assistant or legislative aide. The presenter specifically names Phil Maxson, who has been employed as a legislative aide in Sen. McConnell’s office since early 2011, and appears to refer to the senator’s chief of staff, Josh Holmes. Reports filed with the Federal Election Commission show neither man has been paid by Sen. McConnell’s campaign committee or leadership PAC.

When first questioned by reporters about the misuse of official resources, Sen. McConnell’s office refused to comment. Days later, apparently recognizing the legal violations, Sen. McConnell’s campaign manager claimed the staffers were thanked for conducting the research on their free time. Sloan continued, “Luckily enough, the FBI has the technology to parse the tape and discern what was really said. Given the questions raised, Sen. McConnell should welcome both an FBI and ethics committee investigation into his conduct.”

Maddow Calls Out Rand Paul Over Civil Rights Act

Expand background checks for gun safety

From today's Herald-Leader:

A Bluegrass Poll by The Courier-Journal in January found strong support for the rights of gun owners among adult Kentuckians, as you'd expect.

The poll also found that 75 percent in Kentucky support criminal background checks before all gun sales, including those between private individuals.

Yet Sen. Mitch McConnell, the Senate Republican leader, has joined a filibuster threat led by fellow Kentuckian Sen. Rand Paul to block any gun control measure from coming up for a vote in the Senate, even expanded background checks.

Do pay attention to the man behind the curtain

An editorial in today's Courier-Journal:

Having been caught on a recording, discussing with his laughing staff a potential opponent’s bouts with depression, Sen. McConnell faced the cameras and the microphones and tried to change the story from one of bloodless calculation — his and his campaign’s — to one of third-rate, Nixonian bugging of his campaign headquarters — “the left’s,” or so he said without offering a shred of proof.

...The senator has avoided answering specific questions about the substance of the recording, sticking to his talking points that his wife’s ethnicity has been attacked and that this is the way “the left” operates. The magazine says the recording, provided by an anonymous source, did not come from a bugging operation. The FBI has been contacted. Theories are flying. Stay tuned.

In the meantime, all may be fair in love, war and politics, but there is something indecent about a seasoned pol who has held the same office since 1985, who ostensibly has his own record to run on, turning to an opponent’s mental health battles — something that one in four Americans experience in a given year — as a campaign opportunity.

More tea party stunts

A good editorial from the Courier-Journal:

Let’s consider the proposed antics of (Rand) Paul and his tea party compatriots.

Here is what they want to filibuster.

The gun violence bill would eliminate the “gun show loophole” by requiring background checks for all firearms sales, not just guns bought from firearms dealers now required by law. Even the National Rifle Association once offered to support this extremely reasonable idea before the association became so extreme it refuses any additional safety measures whatsoever.

...Someone needs to bring reason to this discussion — not another pointless filibuster.

Too far right to matter

A great editorial from the Courier-Journal, on Rand Paul and Thomas Massie:

U.S. Rep. Thomas Massie and U.S. Sen. Rand Paul, a couple of Kentucky tea party Republicans... voted against the punitive budget proposed by U.S. Rep. Paul Ryan, R-Wisc. because it just wasn’t extreme enough for them.

Mr. Ryan’s ideas, if you recall, were rejected in November when the nation voted against him for vice-president along with ticket-mate Mitt Romney.

...If they two can’t work within their own caucuses to get things done, how can we expect them to work with anyone to do what’s right by Kentucky?

Thomas Massie: Ryan Budget ‘A Pretend Vote’

A good catch by Talking Points Memo:

Freshman Rep. Thomas Massie (R-KY) told a roomful of reporters Wednesday that the upcoming House vote on the Paul Ryan budget is all for show, with no real consequences, because the proposal is "dead on arrival" in the Senate.

"You know, I'm new here but what I'm learning is that the budget is just kind of a guideline," Massie said on a panel with nine other House conservatives. "And it's sort of a pretend guideline because we know it's dead on arrival in the Senate. So it's all about optics and messaging."

Do our senators need new careers?

An awesome editorial in today's Courier-Journal:

Both (Rand Paul and Mitch McConnell), in their own ways, rapidly are becoming an embarrassment to Kentucky and the nation — Mr. Paul, through some of his extreme positions and statements, and Mr. McConnell, through his determination to use any means, no matter how reprehensible, to secure another term in the Senate.

But their appeals to irrational fears, particularly of extremists in the gun lobby, are beyond embarrassing. They are disturbing and do not reflect the views of most Kentuckians when it comes to rational discourse and claims based in reality.

In the wake of the mass shooting of 20 small children and six adults at the Connecticut elementary school, neither is offering thoughtful discussion on how to prevent such massacres or even consider reasonable controls on firearms. Instead, they are ratcheting up the fearmongering, Mr. McConnell for fundraising, and Mr. Paul, apparently to advance on his chosen career path as a politician.

No threat of 'gun grabbers'

A good editorial from the Herald-Leader:

After speaking at length to business people in Lexington last week without once mentioning a looming threat to their Second Amendment rights, Sen. Mitch McConnell turned into a raving conspiracist overnight, sending out emails and recorded phone messages to Kentuckians last weekend warning "they're coming for your guns."

The alarms sounded by McConnell and his Tea Party campaign manager, Jesse Benton, are way over the top and obviously aimed at stirring up fears along with some campaign donations.

... It's irresponsible and cynical of McConnell to fan groundless fears and suspicions.

Mitch McConnell misfires with gun rhetoric

From today's Courier-Journal:

(Mitch McConnell sent out an) outrageous email blast to supporters from his campaign manager, Jesse Benton, entitled "Watch out, they’re coming for your guns."

...The President’s goals include "full-scale confiscation!" it bleats. "The gun-grabbers are in full battle mode. And they are serious."

...So now, on the firearms topic, he has resorted to what was known in the McCarthy era as the "Big Lie" — say it often enough and people believe it. Let’s hope the people of Kentucky don’t.

Republican Myopia

A great editorial from the New York Times:

Congressional Republicans like nothing more than beating a dead horse if it might embarrass the Obama administration — like their unceasing attempt to accuse the administration of lying to the American people about the attack in Benghazi, Libya, that killed four Americans, including Ambassador J. Christopher Stevens.

The allegations are specious, but that didn’t stop some Republicans from repeating them on Wednesday during Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton’s Congressional testimony. Senator Rand Paul of Kentucky was particularly out of control, rather absurdly comparing the scope of the Benghazi attack to the attacks of Sept. 11, 2001.

...Mr. Paul asked about Mrs. Clinton’s recent ill health in one breath and then in the next declared that, if he had been president, he would have fired her for Benghazi. Calling the killings the “worst tragedy” since Sept. 11 was insulting to the nearly 8,000 soldiers killed in Iraq and Afghanistan or the many hundreds of Americans killed in senseless gun violence each year. We know politicians are short on perspective, but some is required.

Kindergarten cops

A good editorial in today's Courier-Journal:

(Rand) Paul earned a lifetime membership (in Kentucky’s congressional Contrarian Caucus) Thursday when he said that one solution to the massacre of schoolchildren is to arm teachers and principals.

...“Would they always get the killer? No,’’ admitted the Bowling Green Republican. “Would an accident sometimes happen in a melee? Maybe.”

So there might be a little collateral damage — say, a few more kindergartners slain.

...Mr. Paul’s stunning remarks align him with Mr. Massie, from Northern Kentucky’s 4th District, as well as Rep. Steve Stockman, a Texas Republican. Both representatives are seeking to repeal federal laws that ban guns from school zones.

Korzenborn threatens action against Obama

Kenton County Sheriff Chuck Korzenborn apparently feels that President Obama's gun proposals (such as universal background checks, improved state reporting of criminals and the mentally ill, and capping magazine clip capacity at 10 bullets) violate the Second Amendment, and that treason is an acceptable response to them. From WLWT:

"(President Obama had) better be very careful about whether he exceeds his executive office in this country," said Kenton County Sheriff Chuck Korzenborn.

Korzenborn said he's prepared to step in if he feels the federal government steps beyond its constitutional authority.

"If the Second Amendment is violated, or the Fourth, search and seizure, or the 10th, I will take action, and the local feds know that and they appreciate that," Korzenborn said.

Barr, Massie off to a dubious start

From today's Herald-Leader:

Massie's proposal to allow guns on school grounds was roundly panned by Kentucky educators and police.

...In what must be one of the most insensitively worded statements ever to come out of a congression al office, Massie referred to schools as "target-rich" environments.

Newport Police Chief Tom Collins told Cincinnati.com "there's a million reasons why you don't want" to allow untrained people to carry guns in and around schools, including the possibility that the person will be overpowered and the gun taken away and used.

Another contrarian comes to Congress?

A great editorial in today's Courier-Journal:

(U.S. Rep. Thomas Massie) did a belly-flop last week when, upon being sworn into the 113th Congress, he promptly introduced a bill to repeal the federal Gun-Free School Zones Act.

Mr. Massie’s bill — which would allow people to bring firearms into the nation’s schools — is as ill-timed as it is outlandish. It follows the Dec. 14 shootings at the Connecticut elementary school where a gunman armed with an assault rifle slaughtered 20 small children and six educators.

...Mr. Massie should get serious about his job or risk becoming just another Congressional contrarian.