Kentucky Attorney General and winner of yesterday's Democratic Senate primary Jack Conway, with daughter Eva. He'll be facing in November the black frost that is Rand Paul, who routed the state's Republican establishment yesterday.We know the Tea Partiers will be crowing about the Kentucky results. So would we, if we had led that successful insurgency against Pooh Bah Mitch McConnell and the other sticks-in-the-mud that make up the Republican Establishment.
But the Paul victory sets up a dynamic that could end up giving the victory to Democrat Jack Conway (he of the photogenic baby) in November. The Republican Party in Kentucky is torn, and Rand Paul doesn't have the temperament for sewing it back together. He kinda likes ripping fabric.
All in all, the three key senatorial primaries in Kentucky, Pennsylvania, and Arkansas were bad news for party orthodoxy on both sides of the aisle, but worse news for the Republicans, since in Pennsylvania a rising Democratic star beat ole Arlen and in Arkansas, another progressive Democrat could well pick off another blue dog in the run-off.
We like the odds of having new faces for the Democrats in all three states, and actual Democrats at that, rather than warmed over former Republicans or whatever it is that Blanche Lincoln has become.
The tea party may well prove to be the death of the Republican Party, while the hyper-cautious, compromising proclivities of President Obama is doing wonders for rejuvenating some Democratic cojones everywhere but in the White House.