The argument’s been made any number of times before. McConnell is an underminer and an insidious schemer. If he was a back-bencher with his voting record, I would support him. But he VOTES conservative and then UNDERMINES conservatives at every turn. And he’ll be “leader.”
My goal is to make the US Senate a more conservative body. And yes the US Senate will be more conservative with a democrat sitting in his seat.
No, it won’t, that’s insane non-logic. And you won’t like the next leader either.
“My goal is to make the US Senate a more conservative body.”
Bulfeathers. Your goal is to show what a big fellow you are and how “pure” your conservatism is. If you wanted the Senate to be a more conservative body you wouldn’t want to replace a Senator with a career ACU rating of above 90 (over 30 years, mind you; it’s been even higher the past few years) with a liberal Democrat who will compile at best an ACU rating of 10. And we’re not talking about a two-year term, either; Allison Lundergan Grimes (or Grimey, as she prefers to be called) would be elected to a six-year term, and given the she’s a young, attractive female, and Kentucky likes its incumbents, Grimey would have a good shot of being reelected in 2020—remember, Landrieu, Lincoln and McCaskill all were reelected to the Senate (McCaskill won in 2006 in part because Missouri conservatives wanted to “teach Jim Talent a lesson”; Talent was conservative, but not perfect), and they got 6 years of an ultraliberal voting record, a filibuster-proof Democrat majority for over a year, Obamacare being shoved down our throats thanks to her vote, etc., and then couldn’t even get rid of her in 2012 because they nominated Akin and he went off about “legitimate rape” and then refused to step aside for a candidate who could win, so they’re stuck with her for 6 more years). Having KY, one of our more conservative states, sending a liberal Democrat to the Senate for 6, or maybe 12+, years will not result in a more conservative Senate.
As for whether we can win another Senate seat to withstand a loss in KY and still get a Senate majority, I agree with you, we can get to 51+ seats without McConnell. But with Grimey in that KY seat, it would make it that much more difficult to retain a Senate majority after the 2016 elections, in which the GOP will have a far greater number of vulnerable seats than will the Democrats. I would like for the GOP to have 54 Senators after this November in order to have a sufficient cushion to withstand likely losses in 2016; with Grimey in there for 6 years, it makes it more likely than not that the Democrats will control the Senate after 2016. That would mean that the Republican Senate leader that replaces McConnell (likely Cornyn, who is no more conservative or steel-spined than McConnell, but maybe someone better) will likely be minority leade after 2016, and would lead a slight majority after 2018, which is not conducive to advancing conservative legislation.
The Republican leader in the Senate always will be disappointing, because it is exceedingly difficult to get any legislation approved in the Senate without 60 votes, and impossibly to get anything done when in the minority. You’re correct that we might get a more conservative leader than McConnell were Grimey to defeat him, but Cornyn would have the upper hand in the contest (let’s put it this way: if conservatives have the votes to elect a 100% conservative over Cornyn as leader in January 2017, they would have the votes to replace McConnell (who has more baggage than Cornyn) with a 100% conservative), and if Cornyn wins he might stay as leader for a decade, while McConnell wouldn’t stay as leader for that much longer. And getting a more conservative leader may not change things that much, given that Bob Dole was more conservative than Howard Baker, Trent Lott was more conservative than Dole, Bill Frist was more conservative than Lott, and McConnell was more conservative than Frist.
So think about it, and see whether you still conclude that t is better to elect Grimey than to reelect McConnell.
McConnell developing Alzheimers? Maybe he should be told to step down from running for health reasons. He seems to forget about his vote when speaking.