Can the Lovely Judd Beat the Ugliest Man in the Senate?

Your pick: Her ...

Looks like the best looking (and one of the smartest) women in Kentucky has the Ugliest Man in the U.S. Senate (and one of the dullest) in some deep bluegrass manure.

... or laughing boy, here.

Ashley Judd, the marvelous actress who is a noted Democratic Party supporter, is considering a run for Mitch McConnell's U.S. Senate seat, according to Huffington Post (here). McConnell warded off Bruce Lunsford 52-47 percent in the  2008 election--in one of the nation's most conservative states--and now we may get the opportunity to see if he can whack the seven-generation Kentuckian Judd Family (that would be Mama--he's crazy--and Winona in addition to Ashley).

The problem for McConnell right now is not so much Ashley Judd. It is not the Republican Party's far right--in which I'd hand him a membership card. It is himself. Consider:

His approval rating of 37 percent of Kentucky's voters  is the lowest of any senator nationally. His disapproval rate is an astonishing (for a sitting senator and Majority Leader) 55 percent.

Just half the voters in the Kentucky Republican Party would like to see McConnell re-nominated. Thirty-five percent want somebody more conservative (how the hell do you get more conservative than Mitch "Filibuster" McConnell?).

McConnell leads Ashley Judd--hardly a political heavyweight--47 percent to 43 percent in a recent poll. That, my friends, is the very definition of vulnerable. It ain't her; it's him.

If the Judds don't run, there's always George Clooney, another Kentuckian with a strong interest in left-leaning politics. His dad once ran for the House, but lost. Remember: Kentucky is heavily Republican, but sometimes name recognition trumps that (see Ronald Reagan, Republican, California).