BY PATRICK CROWLEY
The Cincinnati Enquirer
Jim Bunning's latest campaign commercials are like car wrecks. You see them, you don't want to look at the carnage, you know it's going to be a little disturbing, but you just can't help slowing down and stealing a quick gander. Or in the case of Mr. Bunning's TV ads, not grabbing the remote and just surfing away to another channel.
You watch and when the 30-second spots are up, you feel ashamed that your prurient side took over. Until one of the ads come back on, and you wake the kids and phone the neighbors. Because you don't want to be alone in your shame and outrage.
And, just like that car wreck, you don't want to miss something that you've never quite seen before.
Unfortunately -- or maybe fortunately -- the ads aren't playing on the local airwaves.
The focus, make that target, of the ads is U.S. Rep. Scotty Baesler, the Lexington Democrat running in Kentucky's U.S. Senate race against Mr. Bunning of Southgate, a Republican and also a U.S. House member.
Review of both ads
One ad was shot at August's Fancy Farm political picnic, where the low-key Mr. Baesler surprised and even shocked a lot of political watchers, Democratic officials and reporters with a speech that many described as over-the-top.
Mr. Baesler ranted, raved, screamed, hollered, pounded the podium and shook his fists. He moved around the podium so much that one Lexington Herald-Leader reporter wrote that Mr. Baesler, a former University of Kentucky basketball player, looked like he was trying to guard it.
But Mr. Bunning had a film crew take some shots of the speech. Music from Richard Wagner's "Ride of the Valkyries" was added. And according to the Baesler camp some selective edits were made -- a charge the Bunning campaign denies -- to make Mr. Baesler appear like a frenzied Adolf Hitler in a Nazi propaganda film.
The music, by the way, was by one of Hitler's favorite composers. It was also used in the film Apocalypse Now during a scene in which a village in Vietnam is blasted.
"It is a deliberate attempt to portray Scotty Baesler in a Hitler-esque image," said Bob Wiseman, Mr. Baesler's campaign manager.
Mr. Baesler wants the ad, showing in most of Kentucky, off the air. The Bunning campaign says forget it.
Kyle Simmons, Mr. Bunning's campaign spokesman, said the music was also used in a Bugs Bunny cartoon, and nobody tried to make Mr. Baesler look like Hitler.
What's up with that, doc? There is nothing cartoonish about that ad. See it, if you can, and make your own decision.
The second ad deals with the vote Mr. Baesler made in Congress for NAFTA, or the North American Free Trade Agreement. Mr. Baesler has since said it was a mistake, but he voted for NAFTA, which is blamed for the loss of thousands of jobs in southern Kentucky to Central America.
The ad criticizes Mr. Baesler's vote. But right at the end an Hispanic man walks on to the screen, gives a thumbs up and says, "Mucho gracias, senor Baesler."
Can you say Willie Horton? The Democrats sure are, claiming Mr. Bunning and his campaign are using race and nationality to play on the fear of jobs leaving Kentucky for Mexico.
It's that time of year, folks. The silliest part of the silly season. Hitler at Fancy Farm, the Mexican War being refought in a Kentucky U.S. Senate race.
Did Mr. Baesler give Mr. Bunning fodder and ammunition for both ads? You bet. He voted for NAFTA, and jobs have left Kentucky. And he did go on a bit of a hysterical rant at Fancy Farm.
But Mr. Bunning's campaign, with their selection of music and their possible editing in one ad, and the insertion of a Spanish-speaking man in the other, used the kind of manipulation we sadly have come to expect at this stage of a tight political race.
The ads should be seen, but they aren't necessarily worth seeing? Does that make sense? Probably not.
Think about it the next time you drive, slowly, by a smash-up on the interstate.
Debate fallout
It will be interesting to see if Northern Kentucky Right to Life goes on the attack after being slammed by Democrat Ken Lucas in Saturday's 4th District debate.
Mr. Lucas, who is running against Republican State Sen. Gex "Jay" Williams, called Right to Life president Bob Cetrulo and his supporters "a bunch of zealots" during the debate at Northern Kentucky University.
Mr. Lucas was still chapped about being hammered by Mr. Cetrulo during a call-in radio show on WNKU a few days earlier.
But Mr. Cetrulo does not forget, and he has made a name for himself taking on politicians who don't fit his description of "anti-abortion." In addition, Mr. Cetrulo is a friend, supporter and political ally of Mr. Williams.
Lots of local pols have found themselves on the political slag heap after tangling with Mr. Cetrulo, who may or may not have tried to set up Mr. Lucas during that radio show.
But Mr. Lucas probably figured he had nothing to lose because Mr. Cetrulo, a Covington attorney, is so firmly entrenched in the Williams camp he provides legal advice and services to Mr. Williams. Nothing to lose, that is, except a congressional race.
Patrick Crowley covers Kentucky politics for The Kentucky Enquirer. His column appears Thursdays and Sundays. He can be reached at 578-5581, or 502-875-7526 in Frankfort.
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