Didn’t know a thing about the senility, dj, but KY hasn’t produced too many any good.
I brought it up at the time. Some of Bunning’s hardcore supporters started attacking me here when I called on him to retire in 2010 (when he was 79), lest we lose his seat (but I did NOT want Paul Junior replacing him). There are few things (politically) more sad than seeing heroes past their prime desperately trying to hang on and watching them fade and become a caricature. A 3rd Senate term for Bunning would’ve been that.
But you’re right about KY producing lousy or subpar Senators over the past 50/60 years. John Sherman Cooper, the liberal Georgetown cocktail circuit Senator; Thruston Morton, another establishment Republican; Marlow Cook, a “moderate” Republican who lost his mind (endorsed Zero); Dee Huddleston, a Democrat hack; Wendell Ford, King of the KY Democrat Machine; Randal Paul and Mitch McConnell, useless Establishment hack and sad embarrassment.
Bunning is the only one who stood out, but he should’ve started out decades earlier in federal office (he was still in local office in the ‘70s). After all, Marlow Cook, who succeeded Thruston Morton in 1968, is only 5 years older than Bunning. Other than him, you’d probably have to go back to Henry Clay to find a giant from KY.