And for Senator from Kentucky ...

Now that Derby is over, it's time to turn our attention to that other race -- the primary election coming up. Do you have your favorites picked out? How about for the US Senate? I've been giving it some thought, and here's how it looks to me on Derby Day:

Trey Grayson -- a fairly good Sec of State, who ran his office competently as far as I can tell. His problem is that he is probably, at heart, more moderate than most of his current party (he used to be a Democrat), and in the primary he has had to run to the right like a scared sheep, due to Rand Paul. Given any sort of decent Democrat, and almost any sorry Democrat, I wouldn't vote for him; but, that's not going to be a question I'll have to ask, because he's going to lose to Paul.

Rand Paul -- a pleasant-looking, pleasant-sounding candidate ... until you examine his policies more closely. Some of the ones that make the Republicans crazy are ones that I support, such as closing Guantanamo. But the more you dig into his policy pages, the more you find extreme views, mostly extreme Libertarian views. So, with Paul you get the worst of both Republican and Libertarian. He's going to win the primary, I suspect, so that makes the possibility of my voting for a Republican, already close to zero, go to absotively posilutely zero.

Dan Mongiardo -- I worked some for Dr. Dan six years ago, because I wanted Bunning out of there. If Dr. Dan wins the primary, I'll work for him again, simply because a sorry Democrat is still better than a sorry Liberpublican. But Dan Mongiardo hasn't won any brownie points with this voter. His support of the so-called Marriage Amendment, his close ties to coal, his ethically-fuzzy use of the housing allowance -- these are not things that give me the warm fuzzies for the man. As I said, if he is the Democratic candidate I'll support him. But not in the primary.

Jack Conway -- I've voted for Jack every time he has run, and will do so again in the primary. I think he is a genuine progressive, for the most part, and will be closest to the positions I would support in the Senate. That said, I'm not sure if he really wants the job; at least, his campaign has not shown the passion I would like to see. Perhaps he is keeping his powder dry until after Derby; if that's his strategy, then let's hope his campaign has read the tea leaves correctly. His performance at the Metro Dem forum a few weeks ago seemed more like the old Jack. Here's hoping the last few weeks show a strong close. Maybe he picked up some pointers from Calvin Borel today?

How about you? Whom are you voting for, and why?