Courier Journal write-up on Fancy Farm 2010 [Archive]

Matt Collins

08-07-2010, 10:46 PM

SELECTED HILIGHTS:

Wilson warned those who went over the strict time limits that they would be cut off by a Bluegrass band playing “Rocky Top” — a sanction triggered by only one speaker, Kentucky Secretary of State Trey Grayson, who had lost to Paul in the Republican primary.

The costumes didn’t work out as well as hoped for two young men who came dressed as Grim Reapers, complete with black robes, hoods and skeleton masks. They also carried plastic scythes and wore signs that jeered at Conway's (http://www.courier-journal.com/section/videonetwork?bctid=458637581001) supposed support for a “death tax” on inherited property.

A security volunteer at the St. Jerome parish picnic stopped them and told them to remove the masks.

“There's kids here and you're scaring the kids,'' said Chris Samples, the security volunteer. “Get the masks off or leave the premises.”

One of the Grim Reapers tried to argue the point. “This is America,'' he said. “This is freedom of speech.”But Samples stood firm. “You can get your point across but you can't scare those kids,” he said.

The Grim Reapers agreed to remove their masks but refused to give their names to a reporter or say whether they were affiliated with Paul’s campaign (http://www.courier-journal.com/article/20100802/NEWS0106/308020009/-1/NEWS010603/Rand+Paul+holds+lead+over+Jack+Conway+in+Kentucky+ Senate+race). “We're not supposed to talk to the press,” one of them said.

Paul supporters included one fellow dressed in a heavy, velour dolphin suit he donned as the heat rose on the picnic ground of the St. Jerome parish. The point? To represent Conway's so-called “flipping” on federal cap-and-trade environmental rules.

Whose idea was the dolphin suit? “Not mine” muttered the Rand supporter from under the furry dolphin head.