Democratic Senate debate reveals divides and renews acrimony (Part 1)

LEXINGTON -- Monday's debate among the seven candidates for the Democratic U.S. Senate nomination should have left viewers with a good deal to think about, as some clear issue contrasts were established between the frontrunning candidates, Louisville businessmen Bruce Lunsford and Greg Fischer. Those two also exchanged contentious words over party loyalty and the state of the primary race - a competition punctuated by combative spurts in recent weeks. All the while, the five other candidates in the field tried to stand out from the crowd during the hour-and-a-half-long debate.

The debate - organized and broadcast by public television station KET - was the first debate to include Lunsford.

Lunsford missed a March 12 debate in Louisville due to a scheduling conflict, though that forum - for Louisville-based candidates only- included just Prospect physician Michael Cassaro and Fischer.

The addition of the poll-leading Lunsford to the line-up made the dynamic of the latest debate lose some of the civility which marked the March event, though things never got overly heated.

Early on in the evening, discussion focused on issues - principal among them the war in Iraq and the proposed gas tax holiday. It was here that genuine distinctions emerged between Lunsford and Fischer.

Differences on Iraq

Concerning Iraq war policy, Lunsford called for a tempered approach, arguing for a "diplomatic surge," as opposed to a "war surge."

"We need to send a message immediately to the Iraqi government that they need to begin to take charge so we can actually deploy troops elsewhere...It's important we do that in such a way to protect the reputation that has been squandered by this administration and this Senator," said Lunsford, referencing incumbent U.S. Senator Mitch McConnell (R-Louisville) - the man the winner of the Democratic nomination will face in November.

"Timetables become difficult because we can't always put the toothpaste back in the bottle," said Lunsford. "We need to start letting the Iraqi government know they need to be weened off the U.S.A's subsidy, and we need to get a partnership with them to help us with our oil crisis."

Lunsford also claimed relations with Iraq could be transformed to benefit American interests.

"This is the time to take advantage of the investment we made over there," continued Lunsford. "I think you can do that in less than 12-18 months, at least to a point where we have it more like a commercial relationship with Iraq, which I think could be a great opportunity."

Fischer called for immediately implementing a withdrawl plan for American troops.

"We need to end our presence in Iraq now. We were led into this war under false pretenses," said Fischer. "Our soldiers have done everything we asked them to do, but with over 4,000 dead and 30,000 injured, it's time to bring our troops home safely and responsibly."

Fischer argued the United States should "make the strategic decision that it's time to bring troops home, and leave tactics to the generals."

"The important decision is to send a strategic message that we are going to be pulling our troops out of Iraq now. It's going to take time," Fischer said. "Certainly not 100 years like John McCain said, but it's not going to be tomorrow either."

Manchester Attorney Kenneth Stepp, who claimed this weekend that he was the "most outspoken" in opposition to the war, said "I would vote to defund the war."

"Let's get us out of there as soon as possible," said Stepp.

Among the candidates, the only one who said he would have voted to initially authorize military action against Iraq was warehouse and convenience store worker James Rice, of Campbellsville.

Rice said he would have authorized the war "based on the intelligence we had."

Lunsford stands alone on gas tax holiday

All the candidates except Lunsford rejected the notion of a gas tax holiday, the proposal currently being pushed by two presidential candidates: Senators Hillary Clinton (D-New York) and John McCain (R-Arizona).

"To me, this is clearly a situation of a multi-tiered attack," said Lunsford. "The gas tax holiday could be anywhere from 30 cents to 50 cents per gallon. More importantly is that it is combined with using the strategic petroleum reserve and beginning to tax oil companies...They are making nearly $40 billion a quarter."

Lunsford also said the immediate savings brought on by a tax holiday should not be overlooked.

"At some point, you have to say, 'What can we do for people short term?'" said Lunsford. "It's not like the only issue they have is the gas prices. It's almost insensitive to look at this and say ‘lets worry about the long-term plan.' They are worried about whether they can pay the next mort payment. This is the time to start doing things that can be done immediately, and then have a grander plan."

Michael Cassaro rejected the savings from a gas tax holiday as "insignificant." At several times during his speech, he called for the devotion of more research money to developing "fusion" energy technologies.

"Fusion can produce more energy than any oil," said Cassaro. "We need to be looking for long-term solutions, not a band-aid fix to a short-term crisis."

Fischer echoed the rejection of the tax holiday and connected its proposal to a larger theme.

"The gas tax holiday is symptomatic of the problem in leadership in our country right now," said Fischer. "The issue is that politicians and leaders have not taken care of problems when they are small problems and then they become big problems. It's time we address problems at their root cause."

"We Need alternative sources of energy - that's the deal," continued Fischer. "We need to ween our addiction to foreign oil, so a gas tax holiday does not help that."

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• Democratic Senate debate reveals divides and renews acrimony (Part 2)