"Lord, May Our Words Be Those Of Grace And Tenderness Today, For Tomorrow, We May Have To Eat Them."

David Williams changes tune on debates
Written by Joseph Gerth

Every chance he gets, Senate President David Williams and his gubernatorial campaign have complained that Gov. Steve Beshear is dodging debates so he doesn’t have to answer tough questions about his job performance over the past four years.

In fact, Williams has been trying to get into the same room with Beshear since March, when he challenged him to a debate on Kentucky Educational Television about finding a solution to Kentucky’s problem with a shortfall in the state Medicaid budget.

He argues that Kentucky voters deserve to see their governor and hear about his policies and ideas when they consider whether to hire him for another four-year stint.

And he is right. Beshear needs to defend his record and talk about the future in more than the sound bites and 30-second political consultant-created reality you see in television commercials.

Alas, Beshear is following the path of U.S. Sen. Mitch McConnell, who is known for his stinginess with debates when running for re-election.

In 2008, McConnell even turned down the KET debate, which was to be televised statewide, and opted instead for a handful of meetings before friendly groups that weren’t televised.

Beshear, too, has agreed to only a few joint appearances.

He went to a Farm Bureau forum in July, and he’s agreed to debate Williams at KET and at a forum in Richmond sponsored by the Kentucky Broadcasters Association.

He denies that he’s dodging joint appearances, but there can be little doubt that he’s avoiding situations where Williams’ pugnacious style could put him on the defensive.

It was wrong when McConnell did it. And it’s wrong now.

But Williams is the wrong messenger.

In fact, he may be a textbook example of why it’s sometimes difficult for a longtime politician with a history of positions and words to run for higher office.

We ran across some of those words last week when researching Williams’ relationship with former U.S. Rep. Larry Hopkins, the 1991 GOP gubernatorial nominee who selected Williams to run his primary campaign.

Hopkins is backing Beshear against his former campaign manager, saying Beshear has shown an ability to work with Republicans and Democrats.

But during that 1991 primary, Hopkins’ foe, Larry Forgy, repeatedly called on Hopkins to come out of hiding and debate him, in much the same way that Williams is challenging Beshear now.

“This is simply a smokescreen to prevent any discussion of the issues,” Forgy said after Hopkins declined a series of debates, claiming that Forgy was running a “mean” campaign.

“The Republican voters of this state want to see a comparison of their candidates, and he’s ducking any appearances with me that he can reasonably duck,” Forgy said.

But Williams wasn’t going to have any of that — and his candidate wasn’t going to debate often.

“He wants to be Perry Mason,” Williams said of Forgy, who like Williams was a skilled speaker who had practiced law for decades. “This is not his courtroom, and he will not dictate how this campaign is run. … A good campaign picks the time and place that issues are addressed.”

Williams, who trails Beshear badly in fundraising and in the polls, went on to say that such debates were quaint relics of the past.

“The days that people rode a wagon around together and stopped at every courthouse and had a debate are over,” Williams said. “The only people who want to do that are the people who can’t afford to get on television and do the direct mail they need to do.”

It’s not the first time Beshear’s supporters have turned Williams’ words in that campaign against him.

They have also called Williams a hypocrite because, in that race, he criticized Forgy for not releasing his tax returns and now refuses to release his own.

Kind of suggests that Owensboro Roman Catholic Bishop William Medley knew what he was talking about back in 2010 when he gave the invocation at the Fancy Farm political picnic, saying, “Lord, may our words be those of grace and tenderness today, for tomorrow, we may have to eat them.”