Mitch McConnell wraps himself in the mantle of an illustrious predecessor in the U.S. Senate -- Henry Clay. In the Senate chamber he has been assigned Mr. Clay's desk. In Mr. McConnell's office, a National Gallery portrait of his hero, the Great Compromiser, stares down.
Like Mr. Clay, Mitch McConnell is wily and tough and powerful. But in this year's re-election campaign, he has missed an opportunity to show some of the Clay courage. He turned down not only a debate with Democratic challenger Bruce Lunsford that would have been broadcast statewide by Kentucky Educational Television but also a televised debate sponsored by the League of Women Voters.
This eliminated the best opportunities for a broad public airing of the issues in the Senate race.
The Courier-Journal's Al Cross adds this:
[Voters] deserve a chance to hear McConnell and Lunsford debate the real issues, but the senator has rejected KET's longstanding invitation for the only statewide debate on television, which would be held Oct. 27, eight days before the election. He says he has a scheduling conflict, but won't say what it is. That doesn't wash.
