When the Louisville Courier-Journal‘s Joseph Gerth attended a Saturday function headlined by Senator Jim Bunning (R-KY),  how was he to know he’d end up penning 2009’s best candidate to date for “Is It Real Or Is It The Onion?”

Jim Bunning predicted over the weekend that U.S. Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg could be dead from pancreatic cancer within nine months.

During a wide-ranging, 30-minute speech on Saturday at the Hardin County Republican Party’s Lincoln Day Dinner, Bunning, of Kentucky, said he supports conservative judges “and that’s going to be in place very shortly because Ruth Bader Ginsburg ¦ has cancer.”

“Bad cancer. The kind that you don’t get better from,” he told a crowd of about 100 at the old State Theater.

“Even though she was operated on, usually, nine months is the longest that anybody would live after (being diagnosed) with pancreatic cancer,” he said.

Bunning, who has only about $150,000 in his campaign account, has been criticized because of his inability to raise money.

“I’m not only asking for your support, but if you have a $25 check somewhere, or whatever, you can send it; I’ll cash it,” he told the group.