Mitch McConnell’s empty promise: We’ll force Obama to rein in government or else risk a shutdown

hotair.com ^ | 8/20/14

[cotton1706]

Does anyone actually believe this?

I guess Kentucky Republicans who don’t pay attention to politics but who’ll end up deciding this year’s Senate race anyway do.

To repeat: Does anyone actually believe this? McConnell was one of the sharpest Republican critics of the “defund” strategy that produced a government shutdown last fall. Watch the clip below if you need your memory refreshed. He’s fond of saying about it, “There’s no education in the second kick of a mule,” i.e. the GOP paid a political price for the 1995 shutdown and then foolishly paid the same price again in 2013 (although the backlash was blunted by public outrage at the Healthcare.gov meltdown that was happening simultaneously). Quote: “I think we have fully now acquainted our new members with what a losing strategy that is.” He hates shutdowns almost as much as the people in the GOP’s donor class who bankroll him do.

And yet here he is, soothing conservatives who are leery of reelecting him by vowing to take the fight to Obama this time and make him cause a shutdown if he refuses to agree to Republican demands. And he wants you to believe he’s going to do this while prominent Republicans, including his pal Rand Paul, are declaring their candidacies in 2016. It’s the purest nonsense. To believe it, you need to believe that somehow, if Obama vetoes the sort of bill McConnell’s describing here, that the GOP will win the ensuing media war over who “really” caused the shutdown. Which party, do you suppose, will the press hold responsible? Whom did they hold responsible in 1995, when Republicans controlled both houses of Congress and went head to head with a Democratic president? The party that loves government, the bigger the better, or the one that doesn’t?

[Din Maker]

I don't think Thad or Mitch pull it out and we get a new Majority Leader and watch it be someone who believes in "comity" like Linsey or Johnny....

Oh, how I hope you are right about that. But, don't count on Lindsey Graham getting reelected just yet. He has a Dem opponent; yes, but, the Independent candidate is young, handsome, well-known, has a lot of money and he hates Lindsey Graham. He is giving Graham a run for his money. He will prolly help the Dem get elected by pulling votes from Graham, but, like I say: Don't count on Graham getting reelected just yet.

[1010RD]

He’s a politician. Why would he lie?

I blame Kentucky, just like I blame MS for Cochran.