National GOP's Mississippi problem (party unity's a one way street)

thehill.com ^ | 5/23/14 | Alexandra Jaffe

[cotton1706]

National Republicans might not support state Sen. Chris McDaniel (R) if he wins the party’s nomination in the Mississippi Senate race.

National Republican Senatorial Committee Chairman Jerry Moran (Kan.) demurred when asked on MSNBC’s “Daily Rundown” whether the party would support him if he does end up defeating Sen. Thad Cochran (R-Miss.) in the June 3 primary.

He said a developing scandal surrounding an apparent McDaniel supporter who allegedly took photos of Cochran’s infirm wife after sneaking into her nursing room home illegally could impact their decision.

“We will see what the facts are at the time we make a decision about that race. I expect Sen. Cochran to win his primary, and I expect him to be the next United States Senator again from Mississippi,” he said.

Cochran is considered the incumbent most vulnerable to a primary challenge this cycle, and a survey out this week from a pro-McDaniel group showed the challenger up four over the incumbent. Democrats are gleeful at the opportunity to run against McDaniel and have recruited centrist former Rep. Travis Childers to run in the general in case McDaniel offers them an opening. If the NRSC declined to support him, Democrats would have an even stronger shot at the seat.

But McDaniel’s botched handling of this ongoing scandal — he has given a murky timeline of events concerning when and what he knew about the video — has given it legs, and three new arrests on Thursday of men related to the scheme have kept the situation in local news, and threatens to hurt his support.

Though McDaniel has repeatedly disavowed knowledge or any responsibility for the video, Moran suggested such personal attacks would be the only way to take down Cochran.

[cotton1706]

See how this works, "we must all come together" unless a conservative wins.

It's ok for Lugar to endorse Nunn and for John Warner to endorse Mark Warner, and BY GOD conservatives BETTER support McConnell...but we might not support McDaniel (meaning we'll undermine him out of revenge).

[cotton1706]

They’ll use the latest scandal (which Cochran knew about for weeks) as an excuse to withhold funding and support.

But THEY will never be accused of “preventing a republican majority” or “helping to elect a democrat.”

[tennmountainman]

While Cochran’s wife is in a nursing home, Cochran is fornicating
with his assistant. Good riddance to Cochran.

[skinkinthegrass]

Yeah..Try tell that to Matt Bevin. "Rant" Paul & "*itch" McConnell,
were all tellin' all KY Republicans, about Reagan's11th Rule:
"Thou shall not criticizes fellow Party Members."

"Rustler" Reid's "*itch" McConnell (Himself-GOP/E) et al, were spewing
mis-information / Dis-information about Matt Bevin, while calling for Party Unity...Question IS, Which Party? 'Rat or..

[ObamahatesPACoal]

Travis Childers can only win if his opponent is pro-amnesty.

Travis Childers voted against the Dream Act in 2010.

[Extremely Extreme Extremist]

This is how the Dems are going to keep control of the Senate.

GOP establishment beats up on the conservative challenger, then conservatives will stay home when the RINO win the primary. Or if the conservative wins, then he'll get no backing from the GOP establishment.

[grania]

I wonder if the GOP powers that be want control of the Senate if it means they'll have a larger number of constitutional conservatives to deal with.

Meanwhile, I don't understand why McDaniel doesn't come out with a strong, passionate statement condemning this photography situation and anyone who was involved.

Too many of these "tea party" types are in it for themselves and don't seem to support what constitutional conservatism is about. A true constitutional conservative would NEVER invade Mrs. Cochran's privacy.

[ChildOfThe60s]

We have met the enemy....and it is the GOP.

[virgil283]

""we must all come together" unless a conservative wins.".....well said...!

[buckalfa]

"A true constitutional conservative would NEVER invade Mrs. Cochran's privacy."

Which begs the question: is team McDaniel that stupid or where they set up?

[Luke21]

And then the Rino club comes on here screeching about how we need to support their heroes.

[SharpRightTurn]

“[McDaniel] has given a murky timeline of events concerning when and what he knew about the video”

Not any murkier than Cochran’s “timeline of events concerning when and what he knew about the” episode.

Come on, Mississipians, don’t take the establishment bait: “yes we know out candidate [Cochran] is a Big Government, establishment hack who is destroying your future, while sleeping with his mistress, but forget all that and base your entire once-every-6-years vote on this trumped up incident.”

[trebb]

We intend to vote McDaniel on 3 June.

I find it funny that one of Cochran's biggest smears on McDaniel is that he is quoted as saying that voting for the Katrina relief would have been a hard vote to cast - most of us know that he was considering that the vote entailed taking money from some to give it to others, and we agree that voting other people's money should be a tough choice.