I'M VOTING SCROOGE!

I keep reading that Jim Bunning can get away with obstructionism because he's leaving the Senate and doesn't have to worry about running again -- but I see that the Republicans who are running to succeed him think his crusade is an electoral winner, or at least not a liability:

Republican Rand Paul's campaign for the U.S. Senate will hold a rally at 3 p.m. Tuesday in front of U.S. Sen. Jim Bunning's Lexington office to support Bunning's blockage of unemployment and health care benefits for over 1 million jobless Americans, including 119,230 Kentuckians.

David Adams, campaign manager for Paul, said Monday he will be representing Paul at the rally....

GOP candidate Trey Grayson ... and Paul have applauded Bunning's stance....

Another GOP candidate for the U.S. Senate, Todd County businessman Bill Johnson, said Monday that he supports Bunning....

I know, I know -- these guys are fighting to win a Republican primary, so each one thinks it's important not to be out-Scrooged by the others.

But aren't Democrats always quaking in their boots, terrified that months, even years, after the fact, some statement they've mde or vote they've cast will be turned into an attack ad against them, aimed at swing voters? Does anyone really think that Kentucky -- the fifth-poorest state in the union, with an umployment rate of 10.4% -- won't still be experiencing high unemployment and hard times come November?

And yet the Republican Senate candidates aren't worried. I suppose they think that few voters will remember this, and that those who do, or who might be reminded, simply won't mind (or will approve). After all, decades of Reagan/Limbaugh/Fox propaganda have conditioned much of America to believe that ordinary citizens don't really deserve a safety net, right?

(Via Crooks & Liars.)