Lynn's "Saddest Day"

Someone wrote in early today to ask about what we're referring to when we talk about Lynn Jenkins' "saddest day," so we thought we'd explain this little bit of Jenkins melodrama.

In her televised debate against former Congressman Jim Ryun before her surprise win in the Republican primary, Lynn Jenkins said Congresswoman Nancy Boyda's 10 minutes in a lounge watching an Armed Service Committee hearing on a closed circuit TV was:

"One of the saddest days in my life." -Lynn Jenkins

Now, it's fine if she wants to make a great big political deal out of the above mentioned incident (well, even Jenkins probably thinks it's less fine now that we all know she didn't even bother attending any of the meetings of the KPERS Board of Trustees in the last quarter, but that's probably neither here nor there). But, really, the saddest day in your life, Lynn? Even just one of the saddest days in your life? Doesn't that strike anyone else as a smidgen bit disingenuous? A little over-the-top? A little flippant, particularly when paired with this response from Congresswoman Nancy Boyda:

“You said it was the saddest day of your life,” Boyda countered, citing an earlier quote from Jenkins about the incident. Boyda noted that she visits with families of fallen soldiers, and wounded soldiers in VA hospitals. “I sit at their bed sides… that is a sad day, Lynn.”

In the end, saddest day or not, Lynn's little off hand remark only says one thing to any of us: she doesn't have the temperment for Congress and she's not ready for the duties or responsibilities of the office she's running for if she thinks for one moment 10 minutes in an antechamber could ever be the saddest day in anyone's life.