Posted on 05/23/2014 6:45:17 PM PDT by SeekAndFind
Together you can rule the galaxy.
I, too, believe Washington, D.C. is not working for Kentucky.
I, too, believe that the federal government should help or get out of the way.
I, too, want Republicans and Democrats to work together to cut spending and to help Kentucky businesses create jobs…
Join me, and let us work together to create change. Yes, we are in different parties, and we have divergent views on some issues. But if you believe that we need a fresh face to shake up Washington, I invite you to join our campaign.
If you believe that it is past time to give Mitch McConnell and his D.C. lobbyist cronies the boot, I welcome you to join our effort to elect an independent, commonsense problem solver who will fight for Kentucky values.
Is there any evidence that tea partiers disgusted with Mitch the Knife might be open to this pitch? Sort of. Remember this table from one of the last polls of the primary?
Twenty-five percent of “conservative” voters were open to voting for Alison Grimes. Granted, 21 percent of “liberals” were open to McConnell, but there are no hard feelings potentially blocking those voters from coming home to the Democrats in November. Among Republicans, there are lots of hard feelings. Read the intro to this CNN piece from a few days ago in which an annoyed Bevin shows off a “Fraud Alert” that Team Mitch sent around about him. Quote: “It’s unbelievable. It’s crap. This is how he has run his entire race. He’s attacking me for being a member of the tea party while threatening to crush these people and punch them in the nose.” His anger was, per CNN, a source of “amusement” to the McConnell camp. Politico got an even more interesting quote from Bevin the day after he was blown out: “You can’t punch people in the face, punch people in the face, punch people in the face, and ask them to have tea and crumpets with you and think it’s all good.”
Or can you?
Matt Bevin responds to Alison Grimes' letter to his supporters. Basically says no dice without explicitly endorsing Mitch McConnell.
— Jim Antle (@jimantle) May 23, 2014
"Kentucky and America do need real change," Bevin writes, but not Grimes' "proposed platform of government expansion."
— Jim Antle (@jimantle) May 23, 2014
No one believes that Bevin’s going to endorse Grimes. He’s young by political standards; if Rand Paul is blocked by law from running for president and Senate in 2016, Bevin might jump into the Senate primary to replace him. He’d be DOA in two years if he embraces the Democrat outright but maybe not DOA if he declares that, as a matter of conservative conscience, he can’t endorse anyone in the race. Besides, how much would it really matter to Mitch-haters if Bevin did endorse McConnell? Support for Bevin on the right was never about him personally; it was a pure “Not Mitch” coalition. Whether that endures or disintegrates as hard feelings soften has little to do with Bevin at this point.
It’s interesting, though, that McConnell is sufficiently worried about tea partiers staying home that he’s already trotting out Rand Paul to make the case for unity. Everyone expected Rand to campaign for him, but I didn’t think we’d see him talking up McConnell’s conservative bona fides three days after the primary — especially since tea-party groups have, commendably, already moved to closed ranks around McConnell. There is, though, something to be said for the idea that Mark Levin was kicking around (but not quite endorsing) the other day about conservatives staying home in the general election to send a message to establishment brawlers like McConnell. It comes at a steep cost in potentially losing a red-state Senate seat, but if you want to truly terrify Beltway Republicans who stray too far from the tea-party line, one lone general-election boycott — at the minority leader’s expense, no less — would do it like nothing else. It’s not going to happen, but again, it’s interesting that Team Mitch is taking nothing for granted.
Exit question: Does McConnell’s plan to repeal ObamaCare also include repealing Kentucky’s state insurance exchange? Oddly, he’s noncommittal on the question.
If McConnell loses, he will only have himself to blame.
KY conservatives will not crawl over broken glass to send him back
to congress. More likely, they will help him apply for a new job at
Trent Lott’s Lobbying Firm.
Why? Are you looking for a play date?
The fundamental problem with Grimes is that she’s all over the map in terms of policy and message.
For instance, she says that she’d help undo all the gridlock in Washington that McConnell is responsible for. But she’s also very much pro-coal and pro-guns, not seeming to understand (publicly, anyways) that the gridlock in Washington is the ONLY thing preventing Obama and the Dems from shutting down the coal industry and imposing draconian gun control.
If KY Conservatives want to go out and pull the lever for a pro-abortion, pro-ObamaCare Democrat who is going to act as an enabler for the destruction of the KY coal industry and the infringement of Kentuckians’ gun rights, they’re more than welcome to go do it.
But they shouldn’t kid themselves about what they are doing and who/what they’re really supporting. And need to do so with the full informed awareness that Grimes is putting out this message in an attempt to play them like a fiddle in order to win.
RE: The fundamental problem with Grimes is that she’s all over the map in terms of policy and message.
Did she say she was going to vote to repeal Obamacare or not?
A yes or no will suffice.
You’re losing your touch, JRF. It took a full 116 posts before someone questioned your patriotism by your refusal to vote for a liberal. Cheers!
And McConnell isn't playing conservatives that he earlier said he would crush, but now he needs their vote for the general?
/johnny
They think that by brow-beating and name-calling conservatives, they can get conservatives to vote for their liberal candidates.
Talk about unclear on the concept of salesmanship....
/johnny
If you’re not from Kentucky, what say do you have?
I respectfully submit that the conservative citizens of Kentucky had there chance (in Bevins) and did not choose him. You say too many conservatives have said “no more”, but where were they Tuesday last?
If you can’t win the primary, you can’t win the general election.
In other places, the TEA party candidates DID win (such as Nebraska). So slowly but steadily the ranks are growing for Cruz and Lee.
This will have an effect. God willing, the Republicans will win the Senate, and the Cruz-Lee ranks will have a say pushing it rightward. They WILL have an affect on McConnell.
I would never question your patriotism. You are a retired Air Force cook. Air Force chow is the best! God Bless.
I’m just worried that unless we roll back much of the damage done to our country by Obama, Pelosi and Reid, the country will not survive. The first step is replacing them. So we did replace Pelosi, but got Boehner. And in my opinion, Boehner is worthless and should be replaced. HOWEVER—he is miles better than Pelosi.
I am not a supporter of RINOs, but McConnell is better than Reid or Chuck U. Shumer, who is next in line. The dems chances are better in 2016, so if we do not make some hay this year, I respectfully submit we will not make it in 2018 or 2020, even with a slate full of Cruz’s and Lee’s.
I am disappointed in Bevins, however, and even more so with conservatives who said they supported him. Where were his supporters? Why didn’t they flock to Kentucky and move Heaven and Earth for him? All I see is a lot of talk, and very little walk.
No, they aren't miles better, except in your hopeful mind.
McConnell may very well lose to Grimes. He only won his last general election by 6%, against a weak Dem. That was before he had burned bridges with conservatives by telling them he would 'crush them'.
Even if the pubs take the senate, McConnell will be majority leader if he survives. He won't be voted out by McCain and Graham types. And Cornyn is the #2 leader behind McConnell. I won't be voting for Cornyn in the general election. That liberal bastard can win or lose without my vote. I don't care, except that I want him gone.
/johnny
Open Primaries. The GOP-E loves them. It lets Dems vote for your party's liberal candidates.
/johnny
My mind is far from hopeful, FRiend.
The whole thing certainly stinks, and we are all getting screwed by the elites in our own party, that is for sure. Still, we need to fight them within the party.
Open primaries or not, but there was no conservative groundswell for Bevins, and many here talked and didn't do anything to help him.
Serious minded conservative folk need to step up to the plate and do better, don't you think?
40% of the voters voted for Bevin. Only 60% voted for the incumbent, who also happens to be minority leader. I think conservatives did fine. Most of the republican party is the 'lesser evil' country club types. They will never go for a conservative in a primary. They would much rather play it safe.
That's why we have a liberal government today, that keeps on growing and spending. Because both parties are full of liberals.
/johnny
100% right
You're projecting, now. I'm applying logic and reason. You're the one holding your breath and stomping your feet.
/johnny
Remember when McConnell swooped in and undermined the House's stance on the 2011 debt limit?
McConnell unveils debt limit ‘Plan B’
Remember when McConnell tried to convince us that voting YES for cloture on the debt ceiling when voting no would stop it, and then voting NO on the final vote meant that he really voted against it>
McConnell Sparks Conservative Ire With Debt-Limit Vote
Remember when McConnell refused to support House efforts to defund Obamacare by sending separate funding bills to the Senate to keep the government open?
McConnell Shoots Down Ted Cruz's Plan To Risk Shutdown Over Obamacare
-PJ
I would never vote for a Democrat under ANY circumstance. Never.
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