Can Mitch McConnell Survive?

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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:

  1. 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.
  2. 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.”
  3. 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?

 

108 comments

  1. The best of both worlds would be the GOP taking control of the Senate and McConnell losing. That is a definite possibility.

    But if I had to choose control over McConnell winning I would choose McConnell winning.

    I defer to the people of Kentucky on how to deal with McJabba.

    And yes, how refreshing it would be if the GOP establishcrap machine treated Grimes the same way the GOP treated McDaniels in Mississippi…

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  6. Don’t be silly, Stacy. Mitch McConnell would NEVER do anything so partisan and non-collegial to a member of ANOTHER party. Why, it would violate everything our Founding Fathers stood for (except our unacknowledged Founding Father Aaron Burr, but what the hell, Archie, what the hell…)

  7. But don’t forget Grimes wants to mandate low-income seating and affirmative action quotas at the Kedntucky Derby.

  8. Maybe the next time Cochran gets lost in the Senate Building we could send McConnell out to find him, wait a few days, then give both of their dehydrated carcasses a nice state funeral…

  13. Never count out Mitch McConnell until the election is over.

    Senator McConnell isn’t perfect — no one is — but he’s a strongly conservative Republican. The Tea Party would have you look at a couple of things and decide that he’s a wild-eyed leftist, but that isn’t the case.

    Kentucky is a solidly Republican state when it comes to Presidential elections, but there are a lot of conservative-to-moderate Democrats in the Blue Grass State, and the state House and gubernatorial seat are controlled by Democrats. The lovely Mrs Grimes isn’t one of those conservative-to-moderate Democrats.

  18. He’d BE conservative, if only he could find “the right hill to die on.”

    I gather there are no hills in DC or Kentucky?

  21. I think I understand your point. Now here’s ours:

    1. How does a man born in 1942 who has drawn public sector salaries since 1967 end up with an eight digit net worth (and those are the assets he admits to, not what’s squirreled away in off-shore accounts).

    2. Here in New York, it is unlawful for funds from a party treasury to be expended in a primary election. Sending out one mailing on official stationary can trigger the law. So what is the National Republican Senatorial Committee’s excuse for existing? It is an incumbent protection racket aimed at the Republican Party’s motivated grass roots.

    3. Cannot say about McConnell, but reading R.M. Kaus’ remarks on the nexus which surrounds Haley Barbour and Chamber-of-Commerce lobbies has been an education, and that nexus includes John Boehner and people one step away from Reince Priebus. We have the bizarre spectacle of the Republican Party’s apex and center conspiring against the interests of Republican voters.

  22. One other thing: he is 72 years old, has ample assets, and, after 30 years on the federal payroll will have a handsome pension as well. Why is this man running for re-election? It’s not as grossly comic as octogenarians like Ted Stevens and Richard Lugar proposing to spend their modest run of remaining years on Capitol Hill. (much less the deeply weird spectres of Strom Thurmond and Robert Byrd). Still, it is anomalous. If he wishes to keep working, he can sell insurance in Louisville.

  23. In campaigns, perhaps. He has been making noises about restoring the filibuster instead of eliminating it entirely and burying it for good. It is not in the interests of anyone other than scheming Capitol Hill insiders for the practice of the filibuster to continue and it will make any true reforms impossible should the Republicans manage to take the Senate.

  25. decide that he’s a wild-eyed leftist, but that isn’t the case.

    Oh, no, it’s much worse than that.

    He’s a “pragmatist”. A wild-eyed leftist you know where they stand. McConnell’s gonna stand where he can get the most leverage for himself, with some consideration to the proper establishment Republicans – but no, he’s not a “wild-eyed leftist”.

    He’s a “Maverick”, like McCain.

  32. I want the Turtle to lose. Period. I doubt the GOP will take the Senate this around anyway. Not after MS.

  33. Half joking, half serious. A more veiled attack on McConnell, while still supporting the GOP. Okay. I get it. But you forgot the anti-Asian angle: Mitch’s current wife is Elaine Chao.

    I have no doubt that McConnell will get very nasty, but will wait until after Labor Day, when he’s ready for the kill.

    Mitch may be deeply disliked by his more conservative constituents. And he has always been hated with a passion by the state’s Dems because he has lorded over Kentucky politics for decades, like a Cardinal Woolsey. But Grimes — or Grimey, as I like to call her — is a gaffe-prone disaster on the campaign trail. That’s why she can’t close the deal and so many remain undecided.

    The biggest fear McConnell should have is Conservative Republicans and Independents just staying home. Coal might not motivate them to get up off the couch, but amnesty just might drive them to the polls. That can well be used as another way to force Grimey into defending Obama, while rejecting his policies. And that’s the approach I bet he’ll take.

  34. And that is why it boggles the mind why the GOPe wants to commit hara kiri by alienating their base. At least, the Dems pander to their base.

  37. Or the Tea Party and independents of all persuasions should write in Matt Bevin overwhelmingly even if it invalidates their vote. That will show the GOPe that the Tea Party in not a Party to be trifled with.
    It will show if the so called GOPe base has enough votes to let McConnell win and will also be doubly hilarious if the Matt Bevin write in would be more than the Dem vote.

  39. Or the TP and independents of all persuasions should write in Matt Bevin even though their vote will be invalidated. That will show the GOPe that the TP is not a Party to be trifled with.
    It will show if the so called GOPe base has enough votes for McConnell to win and will be doubly hilarious if the Matt Bevin write in will be more than the Dem votes.

  40. The GOP Establishment will reap what they have sown. Crush the base and what happens? The house of cards falls. But then again, it seems the GOPE would rather have a Demoncrat that a hated Conservative.

  42. The Bevin write-in sounds like it would be a spoiler vote. That’s not a good risk, given the polling.

  43. I am a Kentuckian, and I will NOT be voting for McConnell. A Senate led by McConnell would arguably be worse for conservatives than one run by Reid.

    After being called a racist by the GOP Establishment (including McConnell who backed the effort to save Senile Thad at any cost) I have gone beyond simply not voting for McConnell, I am going to vote for Grimes.

    And I haven’t voted for a democrat since my first election I could vote in back in 1992.

  44. The GOP Establishment NEVER attacks democrats with the zeal they attack conservatives. That’s why we call them RINOS.

  45. I agree, and I think Mississippi changed a lot of things.

    However, the farce at the border has likely swung back heavily to the GOP, and not deservedly so, because the leadership is as pro amnesty as the democrats are.

  46. Google Elaine Chao, #MitchMcConnell’s wife,” Kathy Groob tweeted Saturday morning. “No mention of Kentucky, she is Asian.”

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