The 'Aqua Buddha' Snub
"Jack, have you no decency?," fumed Kentucky Republican Senate candidate Rand Paul at an Oct. 17 debate. "Have you no shame?" At the end of the night, Tea Party favorite Paul refused to shake the hand of Jack Conway, his Democratic opponent. The controversy that had so shaken the Bluegrass State began two months earlier, when GQ ran a story detailing an incident from Paul's college days in which he allegedly bound a fellow student, tried to make her smoke pot and forced her to worship what he and a friend called "Aqua Buddha." Paul, while insisting he didn't remember the incident, denied any serious misconduct. But by mid-October, with Conway trailing in the polls, the Democrat cut an ad using the allegations to question Paul's attitude toward Christianity. Incensed, the Republican made their fourth debate one of the iciest of 2010. And Kentuckians seemed to share Paul's outrage; Conway has been stalled in the polls since running the ad.