Can Mitch McConnell Survive?

Posted on | August 4, 2014 | 108 Comments

Sam Youngman of the Daily Beast has a feature-style article about the annual Fancy Farm barbecue in Kentucky that is the traditional kickoff of the campaign season there, focusing on the Senate race between Mitch McConnell and Alison Lundergan Grimes:

U.S. Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell rolled up his sleeves and walked to the podium on stage at the brand new pavilion at Kentucky’s annual Fancy Farm picnic.
As McConnell geared up to rail against President Barack Obama and his “Kentucky candidate” Democrat Alison Lundergan Grimes, he began by noting that, “Fancy Farm is fun, but there are serious problems facing our country.”
“YOU!” someone in the crowd shouted for all to hear.

The real political analysis is way down in the story:

Grimes has struggled since Kentucky’s May 20 primary, and while the race is a dead-heat, McConnell has edged into a slight lead, claiming momentum but still falling short of 50 percent in almost every poll. . . .
[O]ne reason McConnell is ahead and still favored to win this race is that both he and the outside groups supporting him have run a relentless campaign to tie coal and President Barack Obama’s unpopularity (the Bluegrass Poll released last week showed the president at 28 percent favorable) to Grimes.
In Eastern and Western Kentucky, where coal fields are pitching in to supply 43 percent of the nation’s electricity and both Democrats and Republicans believe that Obama is trying to murder their industry, livelihood and culture, Grimes’ numbers are down as McConnell appears at this stage in the game to have found the right vehicle for his anti-Obama message.

You can read the rest, but this is the baseline in Kentucky: McConnell is consistently polling below 50 percent, an indicator of trouble for any incumbent. His Democrat challenger, however, has been unable to take advantage of McConnell’s weakness because Democrat Party policies are so far to the left — not just culturally out of touch with Kentucky voters’ values, but directly opposed to their economic interests.

So a weird sort of stalemate grips the campaign, and we await the turning point that will decide the election. The lamentable part of this situation, from the GOP perspective, is that McConnell and the National Republican Senatorial Committee have spent the past 18 months crushing the enthusiasm of grassroots conservatives, waging a campaign to exterminate the Tea Party. The arguably criminal — certainly dishonest and unethical — conduct of the Mississippi primary campaign to re-elect Thad Cochran was witnessed by every Tea Party activist in the country, Kentucky included. Every deceitful smear against Chris McDaniel in Mississippi was a deliberate “f–k you” to grassroots conservatives, courtesy of the D.C.-based Republican political establishment of which Mitch McConnell is the official leader. If it weren’t for this factor — the transparent selfishness and corruption of McConnell and his GOP Senate cronies — the Senate race in Kentucky would not even be close. The major obstacle to McConnell’s re-election is not the usual problem of wooing undecided “swing” voters; his problem is that many thousands of Kentucky conservatives have little motive to vote for him in November.

As a conservative who profoundly despises Mitch McConnell and everything that unprincipled swine stands for, I feel guilty offering his campaign good advice, but the crisis facing our nation requires me to transcend my personal animosity to the man.

Therefore, I advise this: Get evil.

It’s time for McConnell, the NRSC and the Kentucky Republican Party to unleash against Alison Lundergan Grimes the kind of sneaky underhanded Nixonian dirty tricks that the GOP establishment used against Chris McDaniel in Mississippi:

Racism — You can play this both ways. First and most obviously, circulate anonymous e-mails to rural white voters insinuating that Grimes is not only politically involved in promoting miscegenation in Kentucky schools, but is secretly engaged in an interracial affair herself. Meanwhile, you target black Democrats with anonymous e-mails that accuse Grimes of betraying civil rights and secretly harboring white supremacist tendencies. If the Grimes campaign finds out and blames Republicans for the e-mails, you say this proves that Grimes is a paranoid extremist.
Anti-Semitism — Again, your dirty tricks squad will want to play the hate card both ways. Jewish voters will be targeted with messages claiming that the Grimes campaign is funded by wealthy Arabs and staffed by Muslim Brotherhood members who are working to elect Grimes, a fanatical Hamas supporter, to the Senate. Meanwhile, you assign a few operatives to troll neo-Nazi and 9/11 “Truther” Internet forums, claiming that Grimes is not merely a neocon warmonger, but is actually a Jew. “What kind of name is ‘Lundergan,’ huh? She made that up. Her real name is Lunderberg.”
Homophobia — Here’s where you really pull out all the stops. You cover your bases by sending out anonymous messages to LGBT voters that Grimes is a hateful homophobe, but your main effort is to convince religious voters that Grimes is a radical lesbian, and you need to micro-target this message for maximum effect. For evangelicals, you tell them Grimes is having a gay affair with a black woman. You tell orthodox Jews that Grimes’ secret lesbian lover is a Palestinian Arab (one of her Muslim Brotherhood staffers). On neo-Nazi and 9/11 Truther forums, of course, your trolls claim Alison Lunderberg’s secret lesbian girlfriend is a Jew.

A dishonest smear campaign like this would be unethical and perhaps even illegal, but considering what the GOP establishment did to Chris McDaniel in Mississippi, why not do it to a Democrat?

Category: Election, Kentucky, Mitch McConnell, Senate

Comments

108 Responses to “Can Mitch McConnell Survive?”

Dana
August 4th, 2014 @ 4:21 pm

Mr Deco asked:

Why is this man running for re-election?

Because he wants to, and that’s the only reason he needs.
Dana
August 4th, 2014 @ 4:30 pm

Mr X1 wrote:

A Senate led by McConnell would arguably be worse for conservatives than one run by Reid.

I’ve heard that argument before, concerning not only Senator McConnell but some other sitting Republicans, and it’s pure bovine feces. With a Senate run by Republicans, some of whom aren’t as conservative as we’d like, we’ll only get some of what we want; with a Senate run by Democrats, we’ll get nothing of what we want.

And so, you’re going to vote not for some third party candidate as a protest vote, but for Alison Grimes, an out-and-out liberal. Around these parts — and I grew up in Kentucky, and plan on retiring back to the Bluegrass State in a few more years — we call that cutting off your nose to spite your face.

I’ll be clear here: if you say that you are a conservative, it’s just plain stupid to vote for Mrs Grimes. Matt Bevin had his shot in the primary, spent more than any other primary challenger in the nation, and he lost, by close to a two-to-one margin. He had his chance, and Kentucky’s Republican voters rejected him.
Dana
August 4th, 2014 @ 4:59 pm

Mr X1 wrote:

A Senate led by McConnell would arguably be worse for conservatives than one run by Reid.

Think about all of those good bills coming out of the House of Representatives. With Senator Reid in control of the agenda, those bills never see the light of day in the Senate. They aren’t assigned to committees, and even if they were, the Democrats control all of the committees. With Senator McConnell setting the agenda, those bills will go forward. They might get amended, and some of them might not pass, but at least they’ll be considered. Vote for Alison Grimes, and you are voting for every decent bill that comes out of the House to get flushed down the toilet in the Senate.
Dana
August 4th, 2014 @ 5:01 pm

Conservatives protesting Mitch McConnell by voting for Alison Grimes: https://i1.wp.com/coreybradshaw.wordpress.com/files/2009/07/inbreeding.jpg
Escher's House
August 4th, 2014 @ 5:17 pm

I may be the breadth of perversity, but you are indeed its depth.
Escher's House
August 4th, 2014 @ 5:21 pm

He likes POWER. That’s all these guys ever need as a reason.
Escher's House
August 4th, 2014 @ 5:22 pm

No, he’s buying insurance. Watch him roll out the oppo research in a few weeks.
Evi L. Bloggerlady
August 4th, 2014 @ 5:29 pm

I had to up click you because I want the turtle to be soup, but I do want the GOP to take the Senate. I am conflicted here.

And Cochran is not going to be Senator long, he will retire and give his seat to one of the Barbour boys.
Evi L. Bloggerlady
August 4th, 2014 @ 5:30 pm

Thank you. I think.
Finrod Felagund
August 4th, 2014 @ 6:12 pm

Point 2 is interesting. Is that just in New York, or do other states have similar laws?
Finrod Felagund
August 4th, 2014 @ 6:15 pm

Well, the Democrats do pander to their base except when they become inconvenient, then they pretend they don’t exist. See: anti-war protesters.
Hanzo
August 4th, 2014 @ 6:18 pm

Well, all I have to say about McConnell is that he won a primary, so …. Kentuckians had a chance to get him out. Damn near any Republican could win this race, except maybe him. Thank goodness Grimes is such a weak candidate, as you said.
Escher's House
August 4th, 2014 @ 6:31 pm

Well, it IS a compliment, albeit a perverse one.
Matt_SE
August 4th, 2014 @ 6:43 pm

I agree with your position. Grimes will be easy to get rid of 6 years from now. McConnell will not. Strike while the iron is hot.
Quartermaster
August 4th, 2014 @ 6:43 pm

I really hate to see a grown Cow cry. So…

KFC
Quartermaster
August 4th, 2014 @ 6:45 pm

You don’t have to be a sicko to comment helps, but it does help to be badly warped.
Matt_SE
August 4th, 2014 @ 6:45 pm

McConnell will use the apparatus of the state to target conservatives, possibly in collusion with Democrats.
Quartermaster
August 4th, 2014 @ 6:45 pm

I ain’t taking aaaaany chances on that. Things that have been seen can not be unseen.
Quartermaster
August 4th, 2014 @ 6:47 pm

Didn’t you know that Mr. Peabody’s Coal Train done hauled it away?
Matt_SE
August 4th, 2014 @ 6:47 pm

Losing once didn’t stop the establishment in Mississippi; why should it stop us?
As some have noted before, the one admirable thing about the Democrats is that they never give up.
Time to start emulating that. The establishment turned a disagreement into a war, and now we’re going to finish it.
Matt_SE
August 4th, 2014 @ 6:50 pm

The “attacks” against McConnell’s wife are so ham-handed that I wonder if they aren’t staged by McConnell himself.
Quartermaster
August 4th, 2014 @ 6:52 pm

Ya gotta wonder. McConnell hasn’t been the smartest guy on the campaign trail this year. Declaring war on the base was palpably one of the most idiotic things he could ever have done.

I’m past ready for him to be gone.
Matt_SE
August 4th, 2014 @ 6:55 pm

I hate McConnell. He is the devil incarnate.
Maybe that’s too extreme a position to take, maybe he doesn’t deserve it, but that’s my position.
Grimes being a gaffe-prone disaster makes it that much easier to get rid of her in 6 years.
A feature, not a bug.
Matt_SE
August 4th, 2014 @ 7:06 pm

Another wrong move.
If you want to restore the institution of the filibuster, you need to remind the other party why we didn’t set it at 51 votes to begin with.

Terrorize the Democrats with it.

This should be of specific and announced duration, to give them something to look forward to.
When the period is over, see if they agree to restore it. Get them to buy back into it.
Matt_SE
August 4th, 2014 @ 7:12 pm

It’s all about the primaries.
Everything after that is kabuki.
Art Deco
August 4th, 2014 @ 7:40 pm

P.S. I support the filibuster. It is one big difference between House and Senate.

Who cares if there’s a ‘difference’ between the House and the Senate? Requiring super-majorities for consequential legislation to be passed gets you the Republican Congresses of 2003-07. You guarantee public policy as one-way ratchet, as pressure groups readily form to protect already existing benefits.

No need to ‘terrorize’ the opposition caucus. Allow them 20 minutes a piece, transferrable, to say their peace. Then vote.
SouthCentralPA
August 4th, 2014 @ 7:40 pm

OT, but make sure your servers are ready for a Rush-a-Lanche (Rush-slide?). If there’s any justice, he will quoting extensively from your research as he does his promised “feminasi v. trannies” bit tomorrow. Congratulations in advance!
SouthCentralPA
August 4th, 2014 @ 7:45 pm

And back on topic, the problem with doing it to a Democrat is the press will actually investigate relentlessly and exhaustively.
(I’m still flabberghasted in retrospect at the difference in vetting between Obama and Palin in ’08)
Evi L. Bloggerlady
August 4th, 2014 @ 7:53 pm

The best would be McJabba the turtle losing, the GOP taking the senate and then the serving of turtle soup in celebration.
Doug
August 4th, 2014 @ 8:05 pm

I concur with many of the complaints about Sen. McConnell but I will note that he has been the staunchest defendant in the Congress of the first amendment against those who would defenestrate it in the name of “campaign finance reform.”
Doug
August 4th, 2014 @ 8:07 pm

I also want to note that Sen. McConnell is really lucky that Alison Grimes is not this Grimes: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JtH68PJIQLE
ArdvarkMaster
August 4th, 2014 @ 8:31 pm

Conservatives only have one power: their vote.

If they keep voting for Establishment RINOs no matter how deceitful, underhanded or downright despicable RINOs treat conservatives, RINOs will always take the conservative vote as a given and NEVER bother to listen to conservative concerns.

Conservatives need to use their power more wisely than the RINOs. Vote for the other guy and show the RINOs the power of a vote lost.
Dave R
August 4th, 2014 @ 9:25 pm

These are the same kind of people who didn’t vote for McCain or Romney because there’d be no difference between them and Obama. Well, we know how that turned out.
Bob Belvedere
August 4th, 2014 @ 9:58 pm

Fuck you, Dana.
richard mcenroe
August 4th, 2014 @ 10:31 pm

Let’s clarify something: A Senate led by McConnell would NOT arguably be worse for conservatives than one run by Reid” is an incorrect statement.

It would arguably be worse for AMERICANS. They would kowtow to the same money they always kowtow to, and to the Dems funding sources as well, and wriggle spinelessly to leftward, eyes shut and mouths as widely agape and begging as any dole prole’s.

Or a Senate led by the likes of McConnell would be too craven to stand up for the Constitution or their constituents, as Mitch has amply demonstrated, leaving the steady slide into government by fiat and bureaucrat unchecked.

I am trying to remember whether it was Aristophanes or Euripides who satirized the stampede of the trioboloi as the ignorant, arrogant and greedy old men of Athens would stampeded through the streets to claim a place in the Agora for the political debates and claim the three gold coins that were awarded each citizen who participated. The useful and productive members of the city were trampled underfoot by elderly buffoons for a handful of coins.

Just once I’d like to see this bag of monkeys pass up a chance to repeat a mistake…
richard mcenroe
August 4th, 2014 @ 10:32 pm

” With Senator McConnell setting the agenda, those bills will go forward.”

Assumes facts not in evidence, counselor, and flies in the face of public statements made by McConnell and Boehner.
TN Tuxedo
August 4th, 2014 @ 10:44 pm

May the good people of Kentucky simply go Galt. Stay home. Refuse to partake in this false choice in leadership.
Jason Lee
August 4th, 2014 @ 10:53 pm

Democrats are their rivals, conservatives are their enemies.
guinspen
August 5th, 2014 @ 12:51 am

Sit on your sword and rotate, Dana.
K-Bob
August 5th, 2014 @ 3:43 am

Better to use Tennessee whiskey.

Once you go Jack…
K-Bob
August 5th, 2014 @ 4:01 am

Never stay home. Find out the write-in rules and write in a better candidate. At this point, having a freshman, idiot Democrat or a superannuated beltway Republican in the Senate is really a tossup, as far as “damage” to the country goes.

Right now, far too many “smart” people keep analyzing politics like we aren’t standing amidst the rubble of a greatly damaged Constitution. Like our national debt is in the “typical” zone. Like our infrastructure is merely in need of updating (so much for shovel-ready jobs). They need to get their heads out of those old Life magazines in their Mom’s attic and look where we are NOW.
threat
This isn’t your parent’s political scene. Our political situation is more like Beirut in the 1970’s than it is like the Eisenhower days. Merely “winning the Senate” is a pointless exercise unless we remove some entrenched power-elites and replace them with people who will work toward Restoration.

The supreme court nominee threat is meaningless. They’ve already turned the Constitution on its head. One more leftist on the court means nothing in the midst of all this ruin. It’s like worrying over the drapes getting wet when the water is chest high and rising.

If you won’t stand for the Constitution now, then when? After Jeb is nominated so he can lose to Hillary? We’re in a long fight, and Mitch is part of the problem, and not even close to being near the solution. Same with Boehner.

We can afford to lose both of those men. If for no other reason than because they enabled this situation right along with George W. Bush and the Rove faction. They don’t deserve our support, and they’ve made it clear they support the establishment, Progressive power elites over the American people.

Time to rip the bandage off and be done with it.
Dana
August 5th, 2014 @ 7:55 am

I support the filibuster when the Democrats control the Senate; I oppose it when Republicans have the majority.
ConstantineX1
August 5th, 2014 @ 7:56 am

There is only one establishment, the DC Establishment. It has two franchises, the Democrat and Republican Establishments. Conservatives seek the reduction in power (and thus wealth) of the DC Establishment so we are the enemy.
Dana
August 5th, 2014 @ 7:56 am

Even though I don’t drink, fie on thee! I’m a Kentucky boy, through and through . . . even though I live in Pennsylvania.
Dana
August 5th, 2014 @ 7:58 am
Escher's House
August 5th, 2014 @ 9:32 am

I want Obama and Reid stymied, cornered, humiliated and defeated. And I want it to start on January 3, 2015. For that we need a GOP controlled Congress, both houses. McConnell is useful to that purpose. Heck, even the demented Cochran is useful. It’s time to crawl over broken glass to vote for people we don’t like.
Finrod Felagund
August 5th, 2014 @ 9:43 am

From the new Weird Al song, My Own Eyes:

With my own eyes
I see things that’d drive a normal man insane
Wish I could disconnect my brain
From my own eyes (my own eyes)
Those visions haunt my memory
Oh, there’s so much I wish I could unsee
With my own eyes
ConstantineX1
August 5th, 2014 @ 10:01 am

Given his age, I have to wonder if the chances of McConnell of being around in 6 years is not less than the chance that he isn’t and we are running against an incumbent Grimes or other Democrat appointed by a POS Democrat governor anyway?
Art Deco
August 5th, 2014 @ 10:55 am

Yes, but why does he want to?

Recall Charles de Gaulle’s remark: “The graveyards are filled with indispensable men”. Gen. de Gaulle at age 68 may have been as close to indispensable as an occidental politician gets. Other septuagenarians in politics have included Gen. Eisenhower and Ronald Reagan. None of these men sought or held political office prior to the age of 54 and the quantum of time they remained in politics (9 to 25 years) was a fraction of the time men such as McConnell and faux Indiana resident Lugar did.

You could offer the career of Winston Churchill as a counterpoint. The thing is, the most salient Churchill initiatives of his second tour in office were the counter-insurgencies in Malaya and Kenya. The former, however, began before he took office and both were brought to a conclusion by his successors. There was a reason some of his colleagues wanted him to turn over the keys to Anthony Eden in 1945 (at age 71) rather than ten years later.

There’s so much to do with your time, especially when you have a generous compliment of relatives.
Dana
August 5th, 2014 @ 3:51 pm

You’re welcome!