Roundup for June 1: Debating debates

Two of Kentucky's leading political reporters say Sen. Mitch McConnell and Alison Lundergan Grimes need to debate closer to the election, not have a third and final debate "around Labor Day," as McConnell has proposed:

• "The dance about debates in the U.S. Senate race that's been going on for the last week and a half is looking more and more like a dance to not debate," writes Joe Gerth of The Courier-Journal. "Both sides should stop with the games and agree to debate on reasonable terms," such as at least one meeting where someone else asks questions, such as KET's Bill Goodman. The column is accompanied by a video from The Wall Street Journal's Gerry Seib saying the Republican primary may make the race the most expensive ever for the Senate. The C-J also has a debate story by Gerth and Washington correspondent Jim Carroll.
• In the debate about debates, "At stake is voters’ ability to hear for themselves the positions of the candidates and differences between them in what both McConnell and Grimes have described as the most important race in the country this fall," says Ryan Alessi of "Pure Politics" on Time Warner Cable's cn|2. "So far both McConnell and Grimes have been guarded with the media and, by extension, Kentucky voters." Alessi offers a video segment of his show, in which he and his staff discuss "a half-dozen issues on which McConnell and Grimes should be pressed" in a series of debates:

Meanwhile, Carroll has a story on a big issue to be debated: the future of coal and the air-pollution rules President Obama will announce Monday. The Lexington Herald-Leader earlier published a story on the issue by Sean Cockerham of McClatchy Newspapers.