Senator Bunning (R-KY) is offering legislation to require all bills be put on the internet for at least 72 hours in final form before being voted on in the Senate.

The Senate Conservatives Fund, an organization near and dear to my heart (have you given them money?), has a petition on this that you should sign.

From the petition:

The town hall meetings in August uncovered a nasty little secret in Washington: Members of Congress don’t actually read their bills!! If you’re tired of politicians sticking you with the consequences of bills they haven’t read, sign our National Read the Bill Petition.

Senator Jim Bunning (R-KY) is preparing legislation that will require bills to be scored by the Congressional Budget Office (CBO) and posted online at least 72 hours before they can be considered by the Senate or any Senate committee. This will leave Members of Congress with no excuse for failing to read their bills and it will give the public time to express their views before legislation is passed.

This report is from Roll Call:

In a move that signals a retirement announcement from Sen. Jim Bunning (R-Ky.) is imminent, Kentucky Secretary of State Trey Grayson (R) has formed an exploratory committee to run for Senate.

In making the announcement, Grayson reiterated that he has “no plans to run against Senator Bunning” — and one Republican political strategist confirmed Thursday that Bunning did in fact give Grayson the green light to open up an exploratory committee, a clear signal that he does not plan to seek another term in 2010. A second GOP source said Grayson was likely to run now, even if Bunning decides not to retire after all.

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Last fall, our nation’s leaders faced a choice. They could embrace a flawed, ill-conceived and, essentially, desperate plan to try to rescue our financial system and the economy – or they could stand on principle against an interventionist government and the risk of seriously undermining our capitalistic system.

Some Republicans panicked – notably, every member of Senate Republican “leadership” – and as a result, we are neck deep in government mandates, controls, ownership, and just general meddling.

A handful of Republicans did the right thing in the face of the indecipherable blustering of Hank Paulson and Ben Bernanke, something we might refer to as ACTUAL leadership. Members such as Shelby and DeMint, Sessions and Vitter (see the vote here) did not succumb to fear, along with a handful of other Republicans.

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Jim Bunning is in an increasingly nasty fight with the Senate Republican leadership over his 2010 re-election campaign. While NRSC Chair John Cornyn and GOP Leader Mitch McConnell would be happy if he steps aside, they will not publicly acknowledge it. For his part, Bunning has said that he will seek re-election next year. But many wonder if the incumbent can win. He has raised little money and he barely prevailed in 2004. The big knock against him in that race was his ‘erratic’ behavior - and his recent antics give opponents plenty more ammunition for the charge.

And now - as if things couldn’t get any weirder - Bunning has reportedly threatened to resign his seat and allow Kentucky’s Democrat Governor to appoint his replacement:

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Let’s presume just for the sake of argument that Jim Bunning needs to retire. Let’s just presume that. He hasn’t raised much money. He barely won re-election six years ago. He’s got foot in mouth disease. Let’s presume he needs to go.

We should not then presume to make the mistake that David Williams is the answer.

State Senate President David Williams (R) met last week with National Republican Senatorial Committee officials about a 2010 Senate bid, in the most public sign yet that GOP leaders could be looking for someone other than Sen. Jim Bunning (R) to carry the party banner next year.

As Kentucky’s Club For Growth chapter notes, David Williams’ candidacy should be dead on arrival.

Williams supported one of the largest tax increases in Kentucky history after claiming he’d hold the line on taxes. He is, in effect, a Kentucky version of George H. W. Bush and his “read my lips” pledge.

If Kentucky wants to replace Jim Bunning, that’s fine. But we should hope they don’t replace the conservative stalwart with someone more squishy than Mitch McConnell.

Dem-lite is no way to run.

The Politico reported last week that “GOP Pressures Bunning to Quit” and named two “GOP sources” as authority for a story full of false accusations and rumors.  These sources implied that Senator Jim Bunning (R-KY) had not made clear his intentions to run for another term and had not raised enough money to win the 2010 Kentucky Senate race.  In a story linked on Bluegrass Politics, “Bunning expressed frustration that McConnell hasn’t publicly backed his 2010 re-election bid and said McConnell ‘had a lapse of memory’ last week when he told reporters that he didn’t know if Bunning planned to seek re-election.”  Senator Bunning was the first conservative to be chucked under the bus by unnamed sources in GOP leadership and we now know our second conservative victim - Senator Jim DeMint (R-SC).  Who is next? 

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