New York Times Newspaper Takes On Senator Jim Bunning, "A Cornered Animal".

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One of the entrenched narratives in American politics is the case of the guy who refuses to quit, even though a lot of people on his own team want him gone.

While the Democrats are preoccupied with Senator Roland W. Burris and his ties to a tainted Illinois governor, the Republicans are trying to rid themselves of Senator Jim Bunning of Kentucky, the former baseball star who clearly has little use for some colleagues and party leaders, and who keeps exhibiting what one senator calls “behavior issues.” ...

But in recent weeks, Mr. Bunning has shown no sign of stepping aside and delivered a string of incendiary pronouncements that have fed an impression that he is, to go with a baseball metaphor, a bit of a screwball.

He declared in a speech last month that the cancer-stricken Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg would probably be dead in nine months. (He then apologized in a statement that twice misspelled her name.) He threatened to sue the National Republican Senatorial Committee if it backed a primary challenger. And he hinted at a Capitol Hill fund-raiser last week that he was so mad at some in his party that he might just quit and let Kentucky’s Democratic governor pick his successor.

The senator later denied saying this, but veteran Bunning-watchers said it was impossible to know exactly what he had in mind.

“You never know what a cornered animal is willing to do,” said Al Cross, a University of Kentucky professor who writes a political column for The Louisville Courier-Journal.

As a general rule, Mr. Bunning tries to limit his references to his Hall of Fame pitching career. He is sensitive about being pigeonholed as just “a great baseball man” (as a Democratic colleague, Senator Robert C. Byrd of West Virginia, mocked him last year in a verbal brawl on the Senate floor). ...

When asked about Mr. Bunning on Tuesday en route to a Republican luncheon at the Capitol, Mr. McConnell said nothing and continued walking.

Privately, Republican senators and strategists readily express exasperation with Mr. Bunning’s refusal to step aside, but tend to be more diplomatic in public.

“The question is whether it’s time for him to hang up his cleats,” Mr. Musser said. “My basic contention is it probably is.”