Fancy Farm Fracas

Kentucky's biggest political event -- Fancy Farm -- was over the weekend and after last year's Jack Conway swearing incident (technically Fancy Farm is the St. Jerome Catholic Church picnic event in Graves County) you'd figure Conway would have kept a low profile.

Not this guy.  He came out swinging.

"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.

Conway has already suggested that Paul is too extreme for Kentucky. Now he's focusing, his campaign says, on the times Paul has been forced to move toward the establishment Republican view on an issue since he handily won his primary running against the mainstream Kentucky GOP, led of course by Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell.

Though McConnell stood with Paul all day today and offered strong praise for him both at Fancy Farm and the Republican breakfast Saturday morning, Conway tried to reopen the wounds from the primary, when Paul defeated the man McConnell wanted to win the Republican nomination. Democrats hope that residual anger at the primary among more moderate Republicans could turn them into Conway voters.

"What did Mitch McConnell tell the Republican Party the day after the primary?" Conway quipped in his speech. "Accidents happen!" the crowd dutifully replied. 

Now there's a bumper sticker.  "Accidents Happen!"

Good for Conway to stick it to Paul.  He just might pull this off after all.  Lord knows we need him to, because the thought of Rand Paul in the Senate causes bits of my soul to scream in protest.

Good ol' Yellow Dog has a great report from Fancy Farm too.

Mid-morning Saturday, the drive along Highway 80 to Fancy Farm foreshadowed the afternoon's speeches. Along the eight-mile stretch of two-lane between drought-stressed fields of brown corn and stunted soybeans, Jack Conway for Senate signs dominated. I counted more than 100 Conway signs to zero Ron Paul signs between I-24 and St. Jerome's Catholic Church.

Conway's speech was strong, on target, passionate and real. It came as a relief after his passive and false-sounding performances at the Marshall County Bean Supper Friday night and the Graves County Democratic Breakfast that morning. I'd crossed my fingers that he was saving the fire for Fancy Farm, and I was right. 

And Hillbilly Report's Jim Pence completely WTFPWNED some teabagger puke.  Here's his video of Conway's speech:



Good stuff from both of them.  Dems were out in force this weekend and they definitely showed Rand Paul a thing or two.