Posted on 11/08/2013 9:06:09 AM PST by smoothsailing
Mitch McConnell, the Senate's top Republican, is leading his party's charge against the Senate Conservatives Fund, an outside group that's targeting McConnell and other incumbent Republicans the group considers insufficiently conservative.
In an interview published Friday by the Wall Street Journal, McConnell, R-Ky., pulled no verbal punches against conservative groups that, he said, use the controversies they create to raise money and then "take their cut and spend it on political action that hurts Republicans." He pointed in particular to the Senate Conservatives Fund, a group closely aligned with Sens. Ted Cruz, R-Texas, and Mike Lee, R-Utah.
"(The SCF) has elected more Democrats than the Democratic Senatorial Committee over the last three cycles," McConnell told the paper. "Right now they're on the air in obvious coordination with Harry Reid's super PAC — Harry Reid's! — in the same markets, at roughly the same amount, at the same time."
Indeed, SCF, founded by former Sen. Jim DeMint, R-S.C., has spent hundreds of thousands of dollars against Republicans — most notably McConnell himself — in favor of Republican candidates it deems more conservative. The SCF is just one of several conservative groups targeting Republicans in next year's primary, but it is by far the most prominent and aggressive of those groups and the only one McConnell spoke to directly in the interview.
McConnell's comments come just after the National Republican Senatorial Committee moved to marginalize SCF by refusing to do business with any Republican ad firms that have done work for the group.
SCF was one of the groups that pushed GOP lawmakers to defund Obamacare even though it led to a politically disastrous 16-day government shutdown. And it threatened to target any Republican willing to compromise on the issue. Many rank-and-file Republicans cheered SCF's aggressive tack. But McConnell and other GOP leaders charged that the unrealistic effort robbed Republicans of a chance to highlight for voters Obamacare's many flaws.
"Had we been talking Obamacare during that 16 days, instead of people being consumed with the shutdown," McConnell said in the interview, "we'd probably have a generic party ballot lead right now."
Of course he would.
Good.....I hope it hurts you and your type of Gutless Old Party republicans.
McConnell can be President of the GOPe Clueless Mo—— Fletchers club. He’s certain proven his credentials.
Mitch is a RINO
If he only fought this hard as a Senator, he wouldn’t be in trouble.
Rebecca Berg use to write for the New York Times... she’s stirring the pot.
It sure does...
It takes money that otherwise would go to the funds under the Repub Leadership’s control.
THIS NOT A BAD THING....
Not a word from Mitch about how the NRSC hurt the Republican in VA.
And Republican’ts siding with democrats hurts America.
GOPe makes every decision based on their perceived strategy.
Dems make every decision based on their core beliefs.
That’s why Dems win, because even if their beliefs are wrong, they adhere to them as one party.
And that’s why GOP loses, no core beliefs to take a stand on. And that’s why the party is fractured because those of us who do actually stand for something, have some moral compass that keeps us from going to the dark side, can’t co-exist with empty suits.
But the NRSC doesn’t hurt republicans, eh Mitch. Arlen Specter was an out and out traitor, yet he was supported by the NRSC. Charlie Crist was supported by the NRSC. Crist is now a democrat. If were in the senate, he would be a democrat by now, or if he called himself a republican, he would vote like one. Mike Castle, supported by the NRSC, would have been Arlen Specter’s replacment in the senate. Lisa Murkowski votes with the democrats left and right.
NEWSFLASH MITCH!! Moderate republicans “hurt republicans” by voting with the democrats. And the Senate Conservative Fund was set up to remove from power and prevent the election of, moderate republicans, which you continually support.
Well golly gee whiz gumdrops! A "generic party ballot lead" is certainly what all those soldiers fought and died for! Yessir, there's no higher goal than a "generic party ballot lead." I know when I'm praying, I certainly am sure to ask the Almighty for a "generic party ballot lead."
The reason he started it was because Senate Republicans (Rinos) had been blocking his legislation for YEARS!!
They told the press at the time that “DeMint’s bills would be sitting on the kitchen counter like rotten bananas.”
In 2008 the NRCC stripped several republicans of funding for voting against the big bailout. My “lost cause” congressman lost his seat by a whopping 2% and we got the democrat who voted for Obamacare. Fortunately we returned my congressman to DC against the wishes of the party in 2010.
Support Matt Blevins, Defeat Sen. *itch "Mumbles" McConnell. *(D.C.-GOP / E)
Support JD Winteregg, Defeat (SotH) Rep. John *HIC! / HIC!* Boehmer. *(D.C.-GOP / E)
Support Linda Vega, Defeat John Cornyn *(D.C.-GOP / E)
Support Joe Carr, Defeat Lamar Alexander *(D.C.-GOP / E)
Support Lee Bright, Defeat Lindsey Graham *(D.C.-GOP / E)
Support Chris McDaniel, Defeat Thad Cochran *(D.C.-GOP / E)
Support Dr. Milton Wolf, Defeat Pat Roberts *(D.C.-GOP / E)
*District of Criminals-Gutle$$ Old Party / E$tabli$hment
“Well golly gee whiz gumdrops! A “generic party ballot lead” is certainly what all those soldiers fought and died for! Yessir, there’s no higher goal than a “generic party ballot lead.” I know when I’m praying, I certainly am sure to ask the Almighty for a “generic party ballot lead.”
Haha. That is absolutely classic. It’s amazing to get a window into the mind of these aristocrats. He wants to be majority leader. That’s his goal. Doesn’t matter if the people elected have phony “r”’s next to their names like Jim Jeffords, Lincoln Chafee and Arlen Specter did and John McCain, Lindsey Graham, Susan Collins and Lisa Murkowski do. They just add to the numbers to make him majority leader. He doesn’t care at all about advancing the cause of conservatism, just as Bill Frist and Trent Lott didn’t.
Really? The newspaper offers up no evidence supporting this claim but inserts it anyway and the poor defenseless reader is left to wonder whether in fact the shutdown was "disastrous." Fortunately we have the evidence of the vote in Virginia, presumably the state most affected by the shutdown and therefore presumably the state most opposed to the shutdown, yet that polling shows electorate "blamed" the Democrats by one point over the Republicans in the gubernatorial race.
Having teed up the issue, The Washington Examiner then invites McConnell to drive down the fairway at will: "Had we been talking Obamacare during that 16 days, instead of people being consumed with the shutdown," McConnell said in the interview, "we'd probably have a generic party ballot lead right now." There is utterly no evidence whatsoever that this would be the case. Logic suggests otherwise because Ted Cruz and Mike Lee focused national attention on the deficiencies of Obamacare. The reality is that Ted Cruz time after time and hour after hour during his filibuster catalogued the almost endless deficiencies in Obamacare.
Republicans are entitled to better from The Washington Examiner.
Better from The Washington Examiner might have been doing choir what it was that minority leader Mitch McConnell has done for the last five years in the Senate to frustrate the Obama juggernaut? What has he done to undo Obamacare? He could not even participate in passing pointless bills to repeal Obamacare. What did he do for the years when the Republicans had the house and the Senate under Bush to advance conservative values? Did he advance conservative values by passing a new drug entitlement? By federalizing education? By participating in the greatest increase in government spending in history? Historic deficits? Soaring debt?
Republicans are also entitled to better from Mitch McConnell.
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