AP PHOTO/BRECK SMITHER
KENTUCKY’S
KING
care. McConnell tried to steal his
message with a weak proposal
providing meager tax credits and
tort reform. He used his own
childhood bout with polio to obscure the limitations of his plan.
“When I was a child, and my dad
was in World War II, I got polio,”
he said in another ad produced by
Ailes. “I recovered, but my family almost went broke. Today, too
many families can’t get decent,
affordable health care. That’s why
HUFFINGTON
08.11.13
I’ve introduced a bill to make sure
health care is available to all Kentucky families, hold down skyrocketing costs, and provide longterm care.”
No attack was too personal for
McConnell. Sloane had been caught
prescribing himself pain medications with a Drug Enforcement Administration registration number
that had expired three years earlier.
The Kentucky Board of Medical
Licensure eventually cleared him,
and Sloane even took a drug test
proving he was no addict. Yet McConnell hyped the whole contro-
Democratic
U.S. Senate
candidate
Steve
Beshear
addresses
supporters
after losing
to McConnell
on Nov. 5,
1996, in
Lexington, Ky.
McConnell’s
attack ads
during the
campaign
advised
voters
not to get
“BeSheared.”