The Other McCain

"One should either write ruthlessly what one believes to be the truth, or else shut up." — Arthur Koestler

Ditch Mitch?

Posted on | July 23, 2014 | 342 Comments

Who was ultimately responsible for the evil Mississippi primary campaign that smeared supporters of Chris McDaniel as racists?

Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell, that’s who.

The GOP Establishment Incumbent Protection Machine and the big-money donors who fund it have been determined to eradicate the Tea Party movement in the 2014 campaign cycle.

This is McConnell’s formula for Republican success: Destroy all primary challengers, whatever the cost, and ensure that only Establishment-approved candidates win primaries in open-seat races or against vulnerable Democrat incumbents. It’s a cautious, risk-averse strategy, and if Republicans capture the Senate majority in November, McConnell will be congratulated on his success.

On the other hand . . .

What if it all goes sideways? What if this political equivalent of the NFL “prevent defense” turns out to be a formula for GOP failure?

What if all the big money and all the shrewd consultants turn out to be less valuable to Republicans than the grassroots conservative supporters who have been alienated by McConnell’s strategy?

What if Mitch McConnell loses his own Senate seat?

Manu Raju and John Bresnahan of Politico examine that scenario at some length today, and it’s not as far-fetched as it may seem.

Look at the polls: McConnell leads Democrat challenger Alison Lundergan Grimes by 5 points in the Real Clear Politics average, but the race has only been polled four times in the past two months, so we don’t know how solid that lead really is. Most importantly, McConnell is consistently polling below 50% — as low as 42% in a May poll — and that’s always a troubling sign for an incumbent.

As the Politico article says, if McConnell can’t defeat Grimes, the prospects for a GOP Senate majority are pretty remote. And if Republicans can’t take over the Senate this year — when they have every possible advantage, by ordinary calculations — it’s possible to argue that Republicans can never win a Senate majority, that the GOP is doomed to permanent minority status.

This scenario, the de facto triumph of Democrats as uncontested rulers of America as a one-party centralized state, would be a complete reversal of the “permanent Republican majority” Karl Rove promised in the wake of George W. Bush’s re-election.

After all the evil deeds perpetrated by the Republican establishment in the Mississippi primary, some of my conservative friends respond to this possibility with calm: “Let it burn,” they say.

It’s becoming harder to argue that these friends of mine are wrong.

 

Category: Election, Kentucky, Mitch McConnell, Republicans, Senate

Comments

342 Responses to “Ditch Mitch?”

  1. laura_PH
    July 25th, 2014 @ 5:01 pm

    And by the way, ^ THAT ^ was a display of temper, unlike when I reluctantly voted for both McCain and Romney.

  2. Howdy
    July 25th, 2014 @ 5:04 pm

    Yes, so Obama can keep making up law by executive decree, which he couldn’t if the House and Senate were united against him. So Obama can continue to pack the court and perhaps pick another extreme liberal for the Supreme court, So Obama can continue to spend without any restraint or plan to bring it under control, as he would have to if we had a budget…
    Yeah, not that.

  3. Howdy
    July 25th, 2014 @ 5:16 pm

    “No one” meaning you speak for everyone…That’s the appeal to popularity fallacy, meant top persuade the insecure to hop on the bandwagon.
    It’s all up there for “everybody” to see. An honest person will acknowledge the obvious; that you are out to suppress the vote on the right. According to your profile you don’t go to leftist websites and defend those who proclaim that we should just let the country burn. You don’t say that their politicians are the equivalent to the right’s like you do here, you don’t push for the obviously unelectable….
    If you are fine with letting the country burn why don’t you get out of the USA?

  4. Howdy
    July 25th, 2014 @ 5:24 pm

    I comprehend it just fine, you have rationalized throwing away the republic. Where have I written F-off? Could it be that you are just hearing what you want to hear?
    No, Obama has been elected twice, with the help of conservatives who stayed home in the face of an existential threat to the American way of life, twice. Next up is Hillary, However, his presidency can effectively be ended early if we, (conservatives, patriots, not brain dead fools) don’t blow it.
    O’Donnell up my ass, eh, stay classy.
    The GOPe or whatever doesn’t pick your candidates. The primaries do. Your drama-queen potty mouth rant doesn’t change the fact that the end of those primaries there is a viable choice between voting for the socialist of voting against him, stop making the wrong choice.

  5. cmdr358
    July 25th, 2014 @ 5:34 pm

    My stripes were earned in service to this country so I’m keeping them for life.
    I care about the long-term welfare of my country. This isn’t about what I want and when I want it so I’m willing to sacrifice my own short-term happiness so that every citizen can enjoy the fruits of this great nation even long after I’m gone.
    Our current political cadre is corrupt, Dems & Republicans, now and the next few years is our golden opportunity to affect a change. I think that’s what you’re not getting. Long-haul stuff man.

  6. Quartermaster
    July 25th, 2014 @ 5:41 pm

    If you want to save the country from those like Zer0, you’re going to have to raise the bar. Your bar would pass the DimoKKKraps.

    No. I’m not a troll like you.

  7. Quartermaster
    July 25th, 2014 @ 5:41 pm

    You posed nothing. You’re simply a troll.

  8. Quartermaster
    July 25th, 2014 @ 5:43 pm

    Traitors are people that will not pay attention to what they are supporting. I don’t accept someone just because they have a magic letter after their name.

    I don’t have to account to you. OTOH, you’re not trying anything. You just bought into what the GOPe is telling you.

  9. Quartermaster
    July 25th, 2014 @ 5:44 pm

    My, my, my. You are a true blue moron. I held office as a Republican. I know what the establishment is, and how they operate. You are simply demonstrating grave, willful ignorance.

  10. Quartermaster
    July 25th, 2014 @ 5:46 pm

    Heh! You don’t think the GOPe exists, and you’ve just shown you have no idea what a moby is. It’s time for you to hide before you show yourself an utter fool.

    You advocate trying the same thing that has failed over and over. The GOPe has now declared war against the base. You going to continue being an utter fool?

  11. Quartermaster
    July 25th, 2014 @ 5:47 pm

    You’ve already reached irrelevance. You have shown you are willing to accept anything the GOPe puts up. I won’t play the fool you’re playing.

  12. Quartermaster
    July 25th, 2014 @ 5:48 pm

    You’re an ignorant clown. The sadder truth is you don’t have to be the ignorant clown you are. It’s all self inflicted.

  13. Quartermaster
    July 25th, 2014 @ 5:49 pm

    I’m a regular here. You’ve come in as a troll and expect to be treated like an adult? It doesn’t work that way.

  14. CPAguy
    July 25th, 2014 @ 5:50 pm

    It is much easier to get rid of an incumbent of the opposite part. Also, it lets the establishment know that voters are actually paying attention and will not blindly vote for them.

    It is nearly impossible to get rid of incumbents of the same party through the primary system.

  15. McGehee
    July 25th, 2014 @ 6:14 pm

    The Republicans lost the Senate in 2006 in part because of amnesty. In 2014 they think amnesty will get it back for them?

  16. Howdy
    July 25th, 2014 @ 7:55 pm

    So by letting the country burn you are going to effect “long haul stuff”.
    1 )What would be preventing you from doing that anyway? Wouldn’t it be more effective to work within the system that a convergence of some of the best minds to come out of the enlightenment could give us? A system that you presumably swore an oath to, as did I. (My promises don’t have an expiration date)
    2) How could you possibly think that you are going to get the change you want by letting it burn? Do you think that the people are going to come running to the bystanders to help rebuild the rubble that you helped create? Do you think that since the left has outworked the right in terms of exerting influence through the media, the schools, higher education, the press and now we are talking about abandoning the political process to the left because we aren’t getting who we want through the primaries or in the name of purity that people are going to come running back to the right?
    When societies fail they don’t go to Jeffersonian Republics. They usually try communism or the like. Is that part of the long haul? How are you going to ensure the blessings of liberty for ourselves and our posterity when you are handing them a smoking crater?

  17. Howdy
    July 25th, 2014 @ 7:57 pm

    It’s a start. Letting it burn is surrender.

  18. Howdy
    July 25th, 2014 @ 7:59 pm

    I’ll repeat:

    It’s a serious question. You can insult me on the web because you are anonymous, but in real life, if you believe the things you plaster all over this site to keep people demoralized and at home on election day, why don’t you pack your belongings and leave?
    Why don’t you man up and find some other country that you don’t want to burn down? It’s a serious question.

  19. Howdy
    July 25th, 2014 @ 8:02 pm

    What I have advocated is voting for the most conservative, electible candidate and then working to hold them accountable. What you have come to the defense of is those who have advocated that we let the country burn. Letting the USA burn is treason. Especially when it’s because you are butthurt because your guy didn’t get through the primaries.

  20. Howdy
    July 25th, 2014 @ 8:04 pm

    Christ, no wonder the party is a shambles.
    So where is this establishment? What’s their address? Lets storm the gate with pitchforks and torches.
    Or is it just a catch phrase for anyone who disagrees with you?

  21. Howdy
    July 25th, 2014 @ 8:07 pm

    Wow. Here’s an education, again:
    http://www.urbandictionary.com/define.php?term=moby

    moby

    An insidious and specialized type of left-wing troll who visits blogs and impersonates a conservative for the purpose of either spreading false rumors intended to sow dissension among conservative voters, or who purposely posts inflammatory and offensive comments for the purpose of discrediting the blog in question.

    The term is derived from the name of the liberal musician Moby, who famously suggested in February of 2004 that left-wing activists engage in this type of subterfuge: “For example, you can go on all the pro-life chat rooms and say you’re an outraged right-wing voter and that you know that George Bush drove an ex-girlfriend to an abortion clinic and paid for her to get an abortion. Then you go to an anti-immigration Web site chat room and ask, ‘What’s all this about George Bush proposing amnesty for illegal aliens?’”

    The strategy has been frequently attempted on conservative blogs, but has not been nearly as effective as Moby envisioned, since false rumors are easily debunked by fact-checking minions, and cartoonishly extreme commenters often get immediately identified as mobys and banned.

    “While I agree that it is vital to monitor incoming international phone calls from terrorists, President Bush has gone too far.

    By secret executive order, he has instructed the NSA to place hidden cameras in the girls’ locker rooms of Washington D.C. (Dirt bag City) Islamic schools. His desire to find out ‘what is under all those burqas’ is beyond the pale.

    Maybe the Dhimmicrats are right. If he would do this, what else is he capable of? Let your voice be heard! I for one will never send the RNC money ever again. And, no, I am not a moby.”

    by (I am) John Doe February 08, 2008

  22. Howdy
    July 25th, 2014 @ 8:09 pm

    You have yet to show this GOPe exists. Argue by merit, not by association. Stop being so insecure, just because someone else may believe something to be true doesn’t automatically make it false.

  23. Howdy
    July 25th, 2014 @ 8:11 pm

    Great rebuttal, Actually no, it was just another lame attack. You can’t rebut, you can’t address what I wrote. all you can do is cheerlead, in this case, effectively for Harry Reid and Barrack Obama.

  24. Howdy
    July 25th, 2014 @ 8:14 pm

    Congratulations! you are a regular on an internet forum.
    I haven’t come as a troll, I have simply called a traitorous argument traitorous. You haven’t been able to even address any argument I’ve made, answer any question I’ve asked or engage in a level above playground taunts.
    If this was to impress the regulars do you think you succeeded? If it was to convince me that I was incorrect and that I should join the let it burn movement do you think you succeeded?

  25. Howdy
    July 25th, 2014 @ 8:18 pm

    You can primary them just as easy the next time, look at Cantor. (The problem is getting quality candidates to run)
    It’s actually a LOT easier to defeat someone in your own party then it is to defeat the opposition. Make no mistake, the GOP (tea party included) defeated McCain and Romney by staying home.

  26. Howdy
    July 25th, 2014 @ 8:25 pm

    If you oppose Amnesty (and I do as well) then why on earth would you be willing to let Reid keep the senate and run block for Obamas executive orders?
    We would have had amnesty by now had it not been for the actions of the GOP.

    If you oppose amnesty I hope you are a member of numbersusa.com.

    Look, as an irascible Scott you should know better. You don’t gain influence by losing elections.

  27. cmdr358
    July 25th, 2014 @ 9:16 pm

    In Mr. Cantor’s case you make a valid point.

    Mr. Romney was narrowly defeated by the usual suspects….L.I.V.’s who still fell for the free stuff b.s. so perhaps tI may concede that point to you as well.

    Now with Senator McCain you’re way off base. He made a strategic mistake in an attempt to counter the possibility that Hillary Clinton’s joining the Obama camp would have. Who on God’s green earth would cast a vote that would lead to Sarah Palin being next in line for the most powerful position in the world?!
    The first time around I voted Obama because…PALIN!
    The second time I realized the our President was out of his depth, a liar and a fraud and so voted for Mr. Romney. I hope to have the opportunity to vote for him again.

    1-1-1…..I’ve enjoyed the debate and apologize for getting wound up at times.

    We’ll have to agree to disagree agreeably. (or not)
    I’m out of this topic for now, there are probably some pro-palestinians to haggle with. Do you support Israel?
    Peace man.

  28. Quartermaster
    July 26th, 2014 @ 8:43 am

    It’s not even a start. Either we rid ourselves of traitors like the Turtle or nothing, nothing, will be accomplished. You want to support morons that declare war on the very people who got them where they are, then feel free. You aren’t trying anything when you do that.

    Until you can come to your senses, you’re naught but a little troll.

  29. Quartermaster
    July 26th, 2014 @ 8:44 am

    It’s not a serious question, and you are not a serious person. You are just a troll that picks at your betters and is willing to support the very people that have declared war on their base.

  30. Quartermaster
    July 26th, 2014 @ 8:46 am

    You have confused conservative with the GOPe. The GOPe types are leftists and have far more in common with the DimoKKKraps than with the party base which is quite conservative. You deny the existence of the GOPe all you like, but they are real, and they hate the base with a passion.

  31. Quartermaster
    July 26th, 2014 @ 8:48 am

    The name of Christ is not a byword as you are using it. With me, you have crossed a line. You are worse than a troll and this is the last response you will get from me.

    Go back to your little corner and howl at the moon. You’re a traitor to conservatives and a moron.

  32. McGehee
    July 26th, 2014 @ 9:34 am

    Because I am not prone to blind panic like you are.

  33. Howdy
    July 28th, 2014 @ 11:09 pm

    You are rationalizing treason.
    No thanks.

  34. Howdy
    July 28th, 2014 @ 11:10 pm

    At this point you are confusing getting the last word with having something to say. You have already shown that you are a pussy and a traitor so to hell with you.

  35. Howdy
    July 28th, 2014 @ 11:11 pm

    Spare me the bumper sticker mentality. You are rationalizing doing nothing in the face of a known threat to the country. Shame on you.

  36. Howdy
    July 28th, 2014 @ 11:13 pm

    Christ thinks you are a pussy as well, he just told me.
    You are a traitor to the country.

  37. Howdy
    July 28th, 2014 @ 11:14 pm

    I’m not panicking. If you aren’t concerned about this country then you aren’t paying attention.

  38. Wombat_socho
    July 28th, 2014 @ 11:43 pm

    And the last.

  39. Wombat_socho
    July 28th, 2014 @ 11:45 pm

    Quit feeding the trolls.

  40. Wombat_socho
    July 28th, 2014 @ 11:48 pm

    You have several qualities that Howdy lacks, ability to argue with people without resorting to abuse chief among them.

  41. Top-Hook
    July 30th, 2014 @ 2:40 am

    Congratulations, that was the most craven, cowardly display of censorship I’ve ever seen. When you can’t defend your ideas your ideas are wrong, when you simply censor you are just as bad as the people you supposedly oppose. You are simply the other side of the coin from the flaky left.
    Enjoy your echo chamber. Maybe you can get some thumbs up you big winner.

  42. Top-Hook
    July 30th, 2014 @ 2:42 am

    Just delete it, coward.