Aqua Buddha: The Prequel

The Courier-Journal has two columns today that explain Jack Conway's decision-making process for ending his political career with the Aqua Buddha ad.

From Al Cross, we learn that Conway never showed the ad to his political mentor, Crit Luallen. (She also chaired Conway's campaign.) According to Cross, Conway described the ad to Luallen and told her he was very uncomfortable with it. Luallen advised Conway that if he had doubts about the ad, he should listen to his instincts. Instead, Conway listened to his consultants.

The C-J also includes a reprise from David Hawpe (remember him?). Hawpe retired from the C-J and has been volunteering on the Conway campaign. No surprise there.

But get this: Hawpe got to preview the Aqua Buddha ad before it was aired. Conway did not show this ad -- about which he had doubts -- with his political mentor and campaign chair, but he did show it to one of his volunteers, David Hawpe.

Hawpe wrote about Kentucky politics for 40 years. He of all people should have foreseen the reaction the ad was sure to evoke. But apparently he did not, and now he is trying to justify the ad for posterity.

Hawpe said he thought the ad was "rough but OK. Still do." He then offers a post hoc rationalization of why the ad was less "odious" than other things done or said by various politicians.

Hawpe states that he is "not prepared to say whether using it was a good tactical decision."

Please. It was obvious the instant it aired that the Conway campaign was done. Conway must have served some strong Kool-Aid to his volunteers.

Kimmel's Aqua Buddha Take

In case you can't get enough of Aqua Buddha, here's Jimmy Kimmel's take (h/t Page One).

Yarmuth Throws Conway Under Bus

John Yarmuth could have stayed mum on the issue of Jack Conway's Aqua Buddha ad, but he did not. Yarmuth took the somewhat surprising step of noting that (1) he would not have run such an ad and (2) it appears to be backfiring. Yarmuth made his comments to the Huffington Post (H/T: Joe Arnold).

It wouldn't have been that hard or that unusual for Yarmuth to deflect the question on the grounds that he has his own campaign to run and is not going to advise the Conway campaign.

But instead, Yarmuth took the opportunity to criticize Conway. Perhaps Yarmuth felt the need to distance himself from Conway, given that as Chris Matthews ripped Conway a new one, a fan waved a big Yarmuth sign immediately behind them for the duration of the interview.

KDP Wants a Moral Leader

The Kentucky Democratic Party, according to B&P, questions whether Rand Paul has "any other activity in his background that could affect his ability to be a moral leader in the United States Senate?" KDP illustrates that the only thing worse than a hypocrite is a sanctimonious hypocrite.

To be sure, it's easy to see why the KDP longs for a "moral leader" in the United States Senate. Democrats have had slim pickings this session, what with Ted ("I was too drunk to know I killed her" Kennedy, Robert "KKK" Byrd, Maxine"Don't call me corrupt" Waters, Charlie "I'm not corrupt, just stupid" Rangel and Chris "Countryside" Dodd.

That's what passes for "progressive" moral leadership in the U.S. Senate these days -- crooks and liars who worship the Aqua Buddha known as the Potomac River, and who will do anything to stay within its reach.

She Recants! Damsel in Distress Not Kidnapped

Anonymous Source has resurfaced briefly to explain that Rand Paul did not kidnap her; she calls the reaction to her interview "overblown." Her encounter with Paul now seems to be consistent with the NoZe brothers' tradition of "kidnapping" willing co-eds, and taking them places they did not expect, often via a U-Haul truck.

My theory is that she let Paul blind-fold her and went with him -- willingly, as she makes clear -- because she had a crush on him. Thirty years later, she can't get him out of her head.

Meanwhile, other Baylor undergraduates describe "Rand(y)" as a nice guy who liked to talk about Austrian school economics. That is, at the time of life when Trey Grayson was experimenting with (Bill) Clintonianism, and Barry Obama with Saul Alinsky, Rand Paul's ideology already had coalesced.