Senator Jim Bunning

March 3, 2010

Senator Jim Bunning
601 Main Street
Hazard, KY 41701

RE: Horatius at the bridge – Some comments on your stand in the Senate.

Senator Bunning:

There is no sense facing long odds unless they are “fearful”.

I am sending my letter to Dana Milbank of the Washington Post to you at your Hazard office because I was in the coal business there in the late 1970s. The rumblings from the regulatory agencies then and now are similar. You can do anything you want with coal except mine it and burn it.

Hazard was where I first “rode the belt”. I had my first taste of shine there also. In hindsight I wish the order of the adventures would have been reversed

Three things about your stand in the Senate:

#1 – “One man in the right is a majority.”
#2 – I am sorry and a bit ashamed that you were alone.
#3 - I am reminded of an incident in Senator Moynihan’s book - “A Dangerous Place” - about the UN. When he was the US Ambassador there the resolution that Zionism is Racism was introduced. Moynihan knew that the vote was stacked against him. Nevertheless, he pushed on against it. He used all the wiles that a former bartender and Harvard professor could conjure up to make sure that there were no easy wins. The day of the vote he demanded, and got, the yeas and the nays. As the count was taken and he knew he had lost he got up from his seat and walked over to the Israeli Ambassador. He put his arms around him and said, “Fuck’em”.

“Honor and shame from no condition rise.
Act well your part. There, all honor lies.”

I read this morning that you have 40 grandchildren. When they have grandchildren they will tell them about the man whose name is on the courthouse. The stories will be about a man who defined honor and, by the way, played baseball and knew some Presidents. You are a credit to the Republic.


Kevin Smith