DOUBLE WHAMMY-- BEST OF BOTH WORLDS IN KENTUCKY TODAY

I just arrived in DC and the very first news I heard was awesome-- a double win in Kentucky for the good guys. First of all, the Republican base renominated the most hated and corrupt governor in Kentucky history, Ernie Fletcher, for a second term. [Almost everything in the linked Washington Post article is wrong except for that fact that Fletcher beat Northup, which is all I wanted to point out anyway.] Why did we want this? The general voting population of Kentucky has made it clear in poll after poll that they don't want Fletcher to even remain as governor, let alone get a second term. He's far too right-wing and he's far too corrupt... and in a very messy way. But the religionist reich nutcases who control the GOP primaries... well they just love him. He's their kind of off-the-wall kook.

A much closer call was that the Democrats might nominate someone just as bad, Buce Lunsford, a corrupt, reactionary fake-Dem, cut from the Zell Miller/Joe Lieberman mold. Not only did he go down to defeat at the hands of Steve Beshear, he was whipped so badly that there won't even be a run-off!

Cliff Schecter has all the details about what this means for Kentucky and especially what this means for the crucial battle next year to beat the Bush Regime's #1 Senate Obstructionist, closet case Mitch McConnell, who was backing Northup and has alienated his own party's extremists.


UPDATE: FLETCHER CONCEDES... SO DOES NORTHUP

This morning's Louisville Courier-Journal has all the details and agrees that Fletcher's corruption scandal "still threatens his election to a second term in November, when he would need to attract votes from Democrats and independents to beat the Democratic nominee, former Lt. Gov. Steve Beshear." Of course, first Fletcher will have to unite Republicans who are disgusted with him-- as many of half his party's members. "Northup's television ads said Democrats will be relentless in their attacks on Fletcher in November and argued that she-- not the incumbent-- was the only Republican who could win the general election... When asked by an interviewer if she would attend a Republican 'Unity Rally' Saturday in Frankfort, Northup walked away without answering."