Ky. senator new `Mr. Conservative'
Unassuming Bunning will claim role after others
retire, lose seats
By Carl Weiser
Enquirer Washington Bureau
WASHINGTON - Come January, the Senate will have a new
Mr. Conservative: Sen. Jim Bunning of Kentucky.
When the 108th Congress convenes
Jan. 7, the Southgate Republican is
set to become its most conservative
senator, thanks to the retirement or
defeat of the few Republicans who
were farther to the right in vote
rankings.
Mr. Bunning said he wasn't sure he
would classify himself as the most
conservative, but "I'm in the top 10. I
think I reflect Kentucky's views very
clearly. I think 75 percent of the people in Kentucky agree with
me."
The 71-year-old former baseball star, who is up for re-election
in 2004, credits his conservatism to the Jesuits at Cincinnati's
Xavier University, where he graduated in 1953.
"They taught you to be
self-reliant. Depend on no one
but work with everyone. You are
responsible for your actions,"
Mr. Bunning said.
National Journal, a respected
nonpartisan Washington
weekly, has been compiling
liberal and conservative records
every year since 1981. Based
on those computer analyses of
votes, Mr. Bunning has been
the Senate's No. 2 or No. 3
most-conservative member.
Now he's ready to move up.
In the most recent year for
which the tally is available,
2001, Mr. Bunning ranked third
behind conservative icons
Sens. Jesse Helms of North
Carolina and Strom Thurmond
of South Carolina. Both are
retiring.
In 2000, Mr. Bunning ranked
behind Sen. Tim Hutchinson of
Arkansas. He lost in November.
In 1999, his first year in the
Senate, Mr. Bunning ranked
second behind Sen. Phil
Gramm of Texas. He's retiring.
Vote rankings won't be out for
2002 until February. But no one
questions that the Hall of Fame
pitcher is a Hall of Fame
conservative.
Earning friends and
foes
His credentials could not be
more solid: He gets perfect
grades from the Christian Coalition, the American Conservative
Union and the National Federation of Independent Business.
He gets zeroes from liberal groups like Americans for
Democratic Action, the gay rights lobby Human Rights
Campaign and the League of Conservation Voters.
He called President Clinton "the most corrupt, the most
amoral, the most despicable person I've ever seen in the
presidency." He favors tax cuts, school prayer and gun rights.
"We're really satisfied with the job he's doing," said Sandra
Bowman, executive director of the Kentucky Christian
Coalition. "Kentuckians are conservative people. Our state is
pro-life. Our churches are full on Sundays."
The conservative Family Foundation of Kentucky is thrilled with
Mr. Bunning, too. The group's director, Kent Ostrander, said
Mr. Bunning's efforts to eliminate the estate tax, excessive
business taxes and abortion all are stands that most
Kentuckians support.
"If I had been asked who is the most conservative senator, I
probably would not have come up with his name," Mr.
Ostrander said. "He's grounded in reality. It's a worthy
compliment."
Kentucky liberals, not surprisingly, are less than enthused to
claim the Senate's most conservative member.
"We are so unlucky. I don't feel like I have a representative
there," said Patty Wallace, 72, a Louisa, Ky., "housewife from
hell" who came to Washington from her home near the West
Virginia border to lobby in May for clean water legislation.
When her group encountered Mr. Bunning coming off an
elevator and tried to talk to him, "He just tried to walk away. It
really angered me. ... I am really worried about the
environment. I have seen nothing out of him as far as trying to
protect what we have in our state."
Democrats like former state lawmaker and 1986 Bunning
opponent Terry Mann acknowledge that Kentucky is a
conservative state. Of the eight men the state sends to
Washington to represent it, seven are Republicans. And the
one Democrat, Rep. Ken Lucas of Union, Ky., is the most
conservative Democrat in the House, according to National
Journal rankings.
"To be successful in Kentucky politics statewide, you have to
lean toward the conservative. That's just the way the state is,"
said Mr. Mann, who chairs the Campbell County Democratic
Party.
But that doesn't mean Kentuckians agree with Mr. Bunning's
votes. For example, Mr. Mann said he doubted most wanted to
go to war against Iraq although Mr. Bunning supported a
resolution giving President Bush authority for military action.
A `steadfast' vote
Mr. Bunning is a loyal Republican, voting with his party's
leadership 97 percent of time in 2001, according to
Congressional Quarterly. He supported President Bush 96
percent of the time.
Mr. Bunning hasn't yet emerged as a leader of the
conservatives, but his voting record shows he will be one of, if
not the most conservative of senators, said David Keene,
chairman of the American Conservative Union. The group is the
nation's oldest conservative lobbying organization.
"Jim Bunning has always been sort of steadfast," Mr. Keene
said.
Some moderate Republicans have occasionally voiced
frustration about Mr. Bunning, though rarely publicly. Sen.
Lincoln Chafee, R-R.I., lamented what he saw as his party's
lockstep voting in a speech to a Rhode Island audience last
year, according to the Washington Post:
"You'll hear a name called, and you know how they'll vote." Mr.
Chafee mimics the somber drone of the clerk calling the roll: "
`Bunning from Kentucky.' It's entirely predictable how that vote
will go."
But worse things can happen than being predictably
conservative in Kentucky, said Michael Thomson, a Northern
Kentucky University political science professor. Most
Kentuckians, especially in Northern Kentucky, share Mr.
Bunning's distaste for abortion, excessive government
spending and regulation.
Being the Senate's Mr. Conservative won't hurt Mr. Bunning in
2004, Mr. Thomson said. After all, he's been public about his
conservatism from the time he won his first election to Fort
Thomas City Council in 1977.
Mr. Bunning got high conservative marks in the House, too,
where the Republicans tend to be more to the right of their
Senate counterparts. He ranked fourth during the Republican
revolution heyday of 1995-'96, though he dropped during 1997
and 1998.
"Giving him the credit he's due, I think he says: `Here's who I
am. If you like me, vote for me. If you don't like me, hey,
tough,' " liberal Democrat Mr. Mann said. "He is what he is. He
lays it out there."
And Mr. Bunning should hardly be upset to be ranked most
conservative, Mr. Mann said.
"I wouldn't be surprised," Mr. Mann said, "if he uses that as a
promotional opportunity."
E-mail cweiser@gns.gannett.com