Another example of Republican idiocy (as if we needed it)

REMOVING ALL DOUBT
By Steve Benen

http://www.washingtonmonthly.com/archives/individual/2009_02/017003.php

EXCERPT: Five years ago, Sen. Jim Bunning (R-Ken.) won re-election despite odd and erratic personal behavior. Now, in advance of another re-election fight, Bunning is acting strangely again.

Last month, Bunning decided not to show up for work for a while, and refused to say publicly where he was. More recently, the Kentucky Republican has been more tight-lipped, at least until this weekend.

U.S. Sen. Jim Bunning predicted over the weekend that U.S. Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg would likely be dead from pancreatic cancer within nine months.

Note to Bunning: better to remain silent and be thought a fool than speak and remove all doubt.

One Reader's comment:

Bunning has plenty to answer for - not only his absences (the first week of new Senate for a "family commitment" he'd made six months before? Sounds like a rehab clinic to me). His bizarre behavior could either be drug/alcohol related, or he's in early stages of dementia. Or, I suppose, he could just be a jerk. But this is the kind of thing that the Dems could go after him for:

Jim Bunning Foundation

On December 18, 2008, the Lexington Herald Leader reported that Sen. Bunning's non-profit foundation, the Jim Bunning Foundation, has given less than 25 percent of its proceeds to charity. The charity has taken in $504,000 since 1996, according to Senate and tax records; during that period, Senator Bunning was paid $180,000 in salary by the foundation while working a reported one hour per week. Bunning Foundation board members include his wife Mary, and Cincinnati tire dealer Bob Sumerel. In 2008, records indicate that Bunning attended 10 baseball shows around the country and signed autographs, generating $61,631 in income for the charity.[16] "The whole thing is very troubling," said Melanie Slone, Executive Director for Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington.

NOTE: 25% of those proceeds is only $126,000. He paid himself MORE than that for an hour per week, over that time-frame. Wanna bet that he didn't pay taxes on any of it either?