Rand Paul, Jack Conway, a boot stomp and the Civil Rights Act of 1964

Watching media cover Kentucky politics this year has never been dull.

The latest incident involves Lauren Valle, the moveon.org worker who suffered the infamous head stomp from Rand Paul supporter Tim Profitt. Profitt offered an apology to Valle, but also said she should apologize to him as well.The result of the incident has been predictable. National media has seized on the incident. Valle has been portrayed as a victim and more people have surfaced saying they were treated in a similar way.

And as always, this hasn’t seemed to matter much to the voters of Kentucky. The latest Louisville Courier Journal poll shows Republican U.S. Senate candidate Rand Paul opening a 9-point lead over Democratic candidate in the Kentucky race.

This has been a common theme this year. The national media have seized on a number of Rand Paul gaffes, his comments about civil rights, his lack of knowledge about Kentucky’s coal mining history, Aqua Buddha, and now this.

Conway has tried to make these gaffes stick. His ad about Conway and Aqua Buddha backfired, and he has a new ad out highlighting the stomp. Kentucky media have mainly focused on the election between the two and the race. The Courier Journal’s columnists have mainly focused on the ads that have been running, starting with Conway’s Aqua Buddha column.The Lexington Herald-Leader ran a story Friday that clarified Paul’s position on the Civil Rights Act of 1964, one of the first controversies Paul found himself embroiled in. Will the national media pick up this story?

Liberal laughter?

The Christian Science Monitor ran a story Friday about Jon Stewart’s march Saturday titled Jon Stewart and a question of Sanity: why a comedian is now liberals’ No. 1 hero.

Read the story and then question if the left’s best hope is a faux news reporter. After all, Stewart maintains that he isn’t a true journalist and he also maintains that he isn’t political. Of course, those who watched him this week with President Obama may question both.

Stewart’s march to restore sanity Saturday has been treated as different things by the media. NPR reminded its employees that they weren’t allowed to take part in the march. Others take it as a nod to the next  generation. Still others are upset that they weren’t given credentials to attend the event.  Whatever Jon Stewart claims not to be, he’s certainly smart enough to know that something big is happening this weekend.