Well, Knock Me Out With A Feather: Louisville Courier Journal Endorses Homeboy Jack Conway Over Dan Mongiardo! Surprise!! Surprise!!!

Louisville Courier Journal Thinks WRONGLY that Conway is best Senate choice for Democrats

Kentucky voters have an opportunity this year to upgrade their representation in the U.S. Senate. Republican Sen. Jim Bunning, whose list of legislative accomplishments in 12 years is negligible and list of embarrassing utterances and actions is long, is retiring. It will be an easy record for hopefuls of either party to surpass.

On the Democratic side, state Attorney General Jack Conway of Louisville stands out as a superior candidate, and we endorse him for his party's nomination. He has an enviable record of policy-making accomplishment in state government and ran a principled though unsuccessful race for Congress in 2002.

Mr. Conway served for six years as a senior cabinet-level official in the administration of Gov. Paul Patton, where he was a key player in the state's 1997 higher education reforms, as well as in energy and criminal justice policy. After being elected attorney general in 2007, Mr. Conway pushed bipartisan legislation to protect children from online predators, created a cybercrime unit and successfully sued drug companies on behalf of the state's Medicaid program.

More important, however, Mr. Conway would pursue a more progressive agenda in the Senate than would his principal rival, Lt. Gov. Daniel Mongiardo of Hazard.

Mr. Conway, unlike Dr. Mongiardo, says flatly that he would have voted for the recently enacted national health care reform. Only he seems fully aware that a measure that expands insurance coverage, prohibits denial of insurance based on pre-existing conditions and creates exchanges to lower the cost of premiums is of special benefit to Kentucky, which has higher rates of poverty and illness than the nation as a whole.

Better yet, Mr. Conway is already thinking of ways to improve health care reform, such as allowing younger, healthier adults to participate in Medicare — a step that would provide revenues for Medicare and allow more people to take advantage of an efficient system — and giving Medicare officials the power to negotiate bulk rates for medications. Mr. Conway also dismissively — and correctly — refused to join the ranks of right-wing attorneys general from some other states who are filing quixotic suits to overturn reform.

Dr. Mongiardo, as a physician in the heart of Eastern Kentucky, should understand the need for health reform better than almost anyone, and he does exude passion and insight in many medical areas. But his performance on reform was unsettling. He says he would have voted for the bill only if he had received President Obama's personal assurance that the measure was simply a first step — a requirement made even more curious by the President's public statements that the reform package was exactly that. Moreover, his call to halt the legislative process and start over was similar to Republican demands and would have played into the hands of obstructionists who wanted to kill the bill.

Mr. Conway has other promising ideas, such as saving $130 billion over 10 years by closing corporate tax loopholes and offshore tax shelters and creating a “hometown tax credit” for employers who hire more workers. He has thoughtfully reflected on the nation's ordeals in Iraq and Afghanistan, and properly draws the lesson that Congress must be wary and challenging of future presidential requests for authority to wage a “war of choice.”

On social issues, there is a broad gap. Mr. Conway upholds women's legal right to make their own decisions about their pregnancies; Dr. Mongiardo does not. Both candidates favor repeal of the “don't ask, don't tell” policy toward gays in the military, as do most of the nation's top commanders. But Dr. Mongiardo was a leader of the disgraceful push in 2004 to insert discrimination in the Kentucky Constitution with an amendment forbidding gay marriage.

Nonetheless, Dr. Mongiardo has commendable enthusiasm for public service and is excited about several of his principal ideas. He promotes developing Kentucky into a center of excellence for delivery of technology-driven health care, pursuing a thriving coal-to-liquid-fuels industry and building a modern, integrated transportation system of highways and light rail. All are worthy proposals, though Dr. Mongiardo's skill in moving ambitious projects forward is yet to be demonstrated.

Three other Democrats are on the ballot in the Senate race: James Buckmaster, a Henderson physician; Darlene Price, of Whitley City in McCreary County, a former U.S. Customs special agent; and Maurice Sweeney, a Louisville businessman who has served on multiple state and local boards and commissions. All are appealing candidates, and we hope they will consider future, and more realistic, runs for office.

In this race, however, Mr. Conway is the strongest Democrat. His party's voters should select him as their Senate nominee.