Is the stubborn sumbitch teetering? Check out this teaser from Roll Call:
But after stressing repeatedly that he will run again in 2010, Bunning seemed to leave the door open to not seeking re-election on Tuesday, saying that he will make a decision on whether to stay in the Senate race within the next few months.
What’s more, the Junior Senator from Kentucky seems to be getting slightly more… self-aware. From the AP:
“When they recruit someone to run against you in a primary it puts doubt in people’s minds that you are going to finish the race,” Bunning told reporters. “Therefore they’re waiting and waiting and waiting, and that makes it, it’s almost a self-fulfilling prophecy.”
Meanwhile, Bunning is lapping up the profuse support of his colleagues:
“I’ll support the nominee of our party,” Rep. Hal Rogers said Tuesday when asked about whether he was supporting Bunning.
Rep. Ed Whitfield likewise said that Bunning “is the only [Republican] candidate for U.S. Senate who has announced. So, at this point, I’m supporting him.”
Can’t you just feel the love?
With Bunning momentarily backing off from his staunch statements that he is without question running for another term followed by melancholic ruminations about “self-fulfilling prophecies”, perhaps Cornyn and McConnell are having some success in forcing the 77 year-old Senator to re-evaluate his options.
Come on, you old bastard: you can’t let them win!
This should be happening in March 2010! If I was a betting man, I’d put money on us running against a different Republican come November of next year. Still a very winnable seat, if we came within 6% of knocking off the Minority Leader in a presidential year, we can take an open seat with a better candidate. But the hilarity of challenging Bunning would make for a much easier race.
btw, the “support” from the congressmen is priceless. If only Lieberman faced “support” like that back in 2006.
First of all, Bunning is doing pretty much a “dance of the seven veils” revealing this and that and leaving the viewers completely unsure how to respond. Second, he’s perhaps been the most politically incorrect, at least for a Senator, in revealing some of the deeper goings on within the party.
This is great.
Bunning won’t run. The Republicans and groups like the Chamber of Commerce will convince him that if he wants to make it to age 80, he’ll step aside.