PHOTO: Dem Jack Conway and Tea Party darling Rand Paul at the Fancy Farm BBQ on Saturday in KY

Conway: Rand Paul Is 'A Waffling Pessimist Who Wants To Be The Prince Of Cable TV'
Evan McMorris-Santoro
August 8, 2010

FANCY FARM, KY -- The Jack Conway who showed up at Saturday's Fancy Farm Picnic was not the one who stumbled through the event last year. In 2009, Conway -- then locked in a tough Democratic primary for Senate -- blurted out "I'm one tough son of a bitch" in response to the screaming hecklers that make a Fancy Farm speech what it is. Maybe not the kind if language that upsets you (or the average network television censor), but it was enough to apparently upset the Catholic crowd at Fancy Farm and shock, simply shock, the NRSC.

This year, the lead up to Conway's speech was mostly focused on the SOB remark, with "will he or won't he?" speculation about whether Conway would repeat the unscripted stuff serving as the only real controversy of the day. People needn't have bothered -- Conway delivered a firey speech that had plenty of tough words for Republican nominee Rand Paul, but none of them crossed the line into PG-13 territory.

But boy, did the speech stick it to Paul. Conway came out swinging, mocking Paul for his early gaffes on the campaign trail and attacking Paul as "a waffling pessimist who wants to be the prince of cable TV."

"There seems to be an emerging theme for Rand Paul and the Republicans this year," Conway said. "And that theme is, 'accidents happen.'"

So began a call-and-response routine with the crowd at the event that called for them to repeat the phrase, which came from Paul's infamous explanation for the BP oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico.

more...

http://tpmdc.talkingpointsmemo.com/2010/08/conway-rand-paul-is-a-waffling-pessimist-who-wants-to-be-the-prince-of-cable-tv.php

Thursday, Aug. 12, 2010

The Kentucky Test: Is Rand Paul's Brew Too Strong?
By Joe Klein

In the shimmering heat at the 130th annual Fancy Farm picnic, which marks the beginning of Kentucky's political season, I saw Death debating a man in a tinfoil hat. Both claimed to be supporters of Rand Paul, the libertarian Republican who is running for the U.S. Senate, but Death — who was wearing a sign that read, " Conway's Death Tax Kills Farms," a reference to Paul's Democratic opponent — insisted the tinfoil guy was an imposter. "You're a communist," Death told him, then turned to me: "He's just trying to make us look ridiculous." The tinfoil guy was wearing a Rand Paul sign on his back and a Dora the Explorer piñata lashed to his chest. "I'm completely against Mexicans," he explained. This confrontation, which was never resolved, took place two days before GQ magazine reported that an unnamed woman said that in college, "Randy" Paul and a friend had (playfully, it seems) tied her up, abducted her and forced her to take bong hits and worship the Aqua Buddha, a rather delightful but hitherto unknown deity. (Paul belatedly denied the allegation.) One can only imagine what Glenn Beck would do with this if Paul were a Democrat.

Welcome to Campaign 2010. This is going to be a Republican year, perhaps a big one. The question of how big will be resolved in states like Kentucky, where mainstream Republican candidates were defeated in primaries by Tea Party sorts like Rand Paul, and the public will have to decide if the GOP is too loony to rule.

Conway, the other guy in the race, is almost an afterthought, but a solid test case. He's wicked handsome, moderate and Kentucky's attorney general, which is perhaps the best office a Democratic candidate can hold these days. He has spent the past three years doing real-world populist things like suing pharmaceutical companies and cracking down on crime and drug abuse, which is epidemic among eastern Kentucky's impoverished hill-country youth. Such activities are far more acceptable than voting for bank bailouts and stimulus packages, the burden that most incumbent Democratic members of Congress carry. But Kentucky is a fervent Republican state these days — Barack Obama is about as popular there as Tennessee — and Conway's staffers admit they wouldn't have a chance if a standard-issue Republican had won the primary. Paul, by contrast, is a fat target, which became apparent in Conway's Fancy Farm speech.

more...

http://www.time.com/time/politics/article/0,8599,2009898,00.html