Williams Didn't Learn From Aqua Buddha
Kentucky Senate President David Williams does not appear to have heeded the lessons of Aqua Buddha.
The Republican, badly lagging behind Democratic Gov. Steve Beshear in the gubernatorial race's latest polling, attacked the incumbent on Tuesday for participating in a Hindu style ground-blessing ceremony for an India-based company building a factory in Elizabethtown.
"He's there participating with Hindu priests, participating in a religious ceremony," Williams said during a campaign stop. "He's sitting down there with his legs crossed, participating in Hindu prayers with a dot on his forehead with incense burning around him. I don't know what the man was thinking."
A religion-based attack is often perceived as desperate -- a Hail Mary a losing candidate throws as a last-ditch effort to catch up in the race. And, as I wrote when Kentucky Attorney General Jack Conway released his "Aqua Buddha" ad during last year's Senate contest with now-Sen. Rand Paul, R-Ky., such moves are frequently flops that end up hurting, rather than helping, the attacker.
The narrator in the Aqua Buddha ad asks "Why was Rand Paul a member of a secret society that called the Holy Bible 'a hoax,' that was banned for mocking Christianity and Christ? Why did Rand Paul once tie a woman up, tell her to bow down before a false idol, and say his God was 'Aqua Buddha'?"
Not only did Conway's ad fail to help him in his race with Paul (it may have even made his loss worse) and was widely condemned -- but Conway's challenger in this year's attorney general race is trying to make the ad work against Conway a second time, by releasing his own ad. The spot hits Conway for "embarrassing Kentucky nationally" with the 2010 ad.
Williams has already sought to clarify his remarks, issuing a statement saying, "To be clear, I very much support economic development and strongly believe in freedom of religion. What I cannot understand is why Governor Beshear has a long pattern of opposing outward displays of the Christian faith such as Christmas trees, prayers before high school football games, and posting the Ten Commandments but apparently has no problem personally participating in displays of non-Christian religions."
Like Conway's ad, Williams' religion-based attack is unlikely to be the magic elixir that narrows the gap with Beshear.
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