McConnell Wins Ky. Primary, Senate Conservatives Fund Immediately Endorses

National Review ^ | 5-20-2014 | Patrick Brennan

[smoothsailing]

MAY 20, 2014 7:36 PM

McConnell Wins Ky. Primary, Senate Conservatives Fund Immediately Endorses

By Patrick Brennan

Senate minority leader Mitch McConnell had been pulling away from primary challenger Matt Bevin for the last couple months of the Kentucky GOP Senate primary, and he triumphed easily tonight, with news organizations calling the win for him soon after polls closed. He’s leading 60 percent to 35 with 27 percent of precincts reporting.

The Senate Conservatives Fund, a Jim DeMint–linked outside group that’s backed a number of tea-party candidates, had made Bevin one of their key candidates this year, hoping to unseat the minority leader. (SCF-endorsed Ben Sasse triumphed in the Nebraska Republican Senate primary two weeks ago.) But after McConnell triumphed tonight, SCF was quick to endorse his general-election effort, releasing the following statement from executive director Matt Hoskins:

We congratulate Senator McConnell on his victory and urge Republicans in Kentucky to come together to defeat Alison Lundergan Grimes. We thank Matt Bevin for standing up for conservative principles and giving voters a choice in this race. Now it’s time for Republicans to unite for victory in November.

Bevin, a successful businessman, never saw his fundraising take off, and didn’t put as much of his personal money into the race as some had expected him to.

McConnell will face Alison Lundergan Grimes, Kentucky’s secretary of state. The most recent polling has them more or less tied, both below 50 percent, though most expect McConnell will strengthen when he can direct his attention undivided toward the general election.

[cynwoody]

This does not bode well for his reelection. Lots of angry Republicans may not vote for this punch bowl turd.

Lot's of stupid Republicans may not vote for him. Any Republican who fails to vote or fails to vote in such as way as to enhance the Republican candidate's chances has voted for the 'Rat. That's how two-party systems work.

Alison "Half-his-age" Grimes

Hittable, but not votable!

[Carry_Okie]

Bevin, a successful businessman, never saw his fundraising take off, and didn’t put as much of his personal money into the race as some had expected him to.

I have a $2 bill on my desk that moron sent me trying to hustle more cash. All he did with my donation was beg for more.

[Viking2002]

I'm from the Appalachian MD/WV/PA tri-state. I know of coal country - I grew up in it. I've walked the tracks with coal dust on my feet. There are just too many people who you can hit over the head with a shovel and they still won't see the light coming towards them. Back in the day, we had a thriving rail and coal industry. PPG. Celanese Fibers. Kelly-Springfield. All gone. People are just now beginning to wake up, but too few, too late for places like these, it seems. People are clinging by a thread - to their homes, their families, their sanity. Obama told one of the few truths of his life when he said he was going to shut down the coal industry and energy costs would soar. These folks still voted him in because Daddy and Grandaddy were old-school Democrats, but they didn't listen to the messenger. Now whatever economies there were in those parts are suffering due to that sort of familial political loyalty - nobody saw the light barreling down on them. It wasn't the rhetorical gravy train they naturally assumed it would be. Even the unions got bought, sold, and kicked down the hollow. Just like voting McConnell back in - it isn't the same us vs. them paradigm anymore. There is no real red vs. blue, black vs. white, or however you want to view the chessboard. McConnell is no more a conservative than Harry Reid is. They're all corporate political insiders with their own best interests at the fore. They're all drunk on their own power and self-importance, and all the so-called bickering you hear about going on in Washington is self-serving manipulation to get the upper hand on each other. We're just fodder. Every day, I hear a thousand voices offer a thousand solutions - some noble, others not so much - as to how to solve our problems. I've convinced the whole thing will have to come crashing down into a cloud of dust before it can be rebuilt as the Founders intended, and real opportunity rises from the dirt.

That's my opinion. You're entitled to yours.

[Yogafist]

Conservatives need to stay home in the general. Let him win with votes from the people he serves, Democrats, or lose to the Democrat.

[RginTN]

Like.

Mcconnell like Tennessee’s Alexander & Corker do their all to undermine Conservatives attempt to advance the Republican party platform in the Senate. I see no point in voting for Democrat lite in the general election. The lesser of two evils is still evil.

[eaglescout1998]

It doesn't surprise me that SCF would endorse the party's nominee. I think it illustrates the difference between “us” and “them”. I wasn't alive at the time, but I do recall reading how Reagan fought hard for the nomination in 1976, and then gave his full support to Ford once he was party's nominee.

I don't think the same could be said for the Republican establishment in 1980, seeing how they got John Anderson to run as a third-party spoiler.

[nathanbedford]

Perhaps now is the time to put in a kind word for apostasy. Bill Buckley's injunction was always to vote for the most conservative candidate who could win and that rule of thumb made sense when Republican candidates had a measure of conservatism inherent in them. But today there is a real question whether senators who claim the conservative mantle, like Mitch McConnell, are committing more harm than good in Washington.

Perhaps now is the time to indulge in apostasy.

For some time now I have been suggesting that at least in a few races conservatives ought to vote for a third-party candidate to ( in the euphemism of the French in World War I on executing mutineers), encourage the others. I was interested to hear that Mark Levin on his radio show two days ago has sent up a trial balloon to the same effect. Levin does not suggest that this should be done in all races against all Rino incumbents who prevail in primaries and win the nomination, but it should be done selectively to make a point.

It occurs to me that the worst of all possible worlds is for conservatives sit home and watch a Republican incumbent go down to defeat and instead of being credited with holding the balance of power, conservatives will get the blame for being sore heads. We will then go into another election cycle in which the Republican establishment will blame conservatives for yet another loss and insist that a Rino offers the only hope of victory in the general election.

In other words the one thing we conservatives ought not to do is to passively defeat a Rino like Mitch McConnell. We should either openly oppose him with a third-party candidate or we should vote for him to a man, even if every man who pulls the lever with one hand is holding his nose with the other.

The problem is we do not yet have a vehicle within which we can organize so that we can show the world that we are in fact acting in concert and we will act in concert again and again until the establishment has its epiphany. Otherwise we live in the worst of both possible worlds, a Rino victory in spite of conservative opposition or a Rino defeat because conservatives are sore heads. That is not the point we want to make. We want to be a force to be feared and we want to affect and ultimately control policy.

[ducttape45]

I honestly hope McConnell loses. It really won’t matter who wins now because both candidates are cut from the same cloth, and it will teach conservatives in these states to vote for a true conservative when they have a chance to.

[Soul of the South]

Excellent post.

[taildragger]

I was interested to hear that Mark Levin on his radio show two days ago has sent up a trial balloon to the same effect. Levin does not suggest that this should be done in all races against all Rino incumbents who prevail in primaries and win the nomination, but it should be done selectively to make a point.

Not to belabor the point, but I think he was hinting at not voting for said establishment candidate. My tag line says it all, I have been so done with the establishment for way too long. It has been a divorce, I am just waiting for our side to move out... Sarah and Mark Levin are you lurking?...

http://therightscoop.com/mark-levin-what-if-we-picked-one-senate-race-in-the-general-election-and-said-dont-vote-for-this-rino/

[skinkinthegrass]

yeah.."Rustler" Reid's *itch McConnell, "declared war"
on Conservatism. We shall NOT forget his deeds/words.
We're not political Opportunist, like he is/has been..as
another FRiend had said, "He's an Turd in a Punch Bowl."

[who knows what evil?]

We congratulate Senator McConnell on his victory and urge Republicans in Kentucky to come together to defeat Alison Lundergan Grimes. We thank Matt Bevin for standing up for conservative principles and giving voters a choice in this race. Now it’s time for Republicans to unite for victory in November.

P*ss off.

[Blackirish]

So is Jim DeMint a sell out too? There is no difference between having Harry Reid as speaker over Mitch McConnell? Jeez what a crybaby thread.

[nathanbedford]

Thank you for posting the transcript which confirms that Levin did not advocate running a third-party in opposition to Rino incumbents in selected races.

Levin leaves it in the air saying, " I don’t know why we shouldn’t educate these people and punch them back in the nose – pick one race and say you’re going to lose this race here. " Levin himself would be the first to ask, who is "we?" Does he mean his own microphone, does he mean conservatives in general?

This is why I think you need the vehicle of a third-party candidate. Policy and the person become one in politics, especially American politics and one needs a paladin to advance the argument against that Rino and make it clear that there is a coherent coordinated movement bringing him down for good and sound policy reasons.

[Theophilus]

Not upset now. I was upset when McConnell increased the debt 12+ times, greased funding for Obamacare, and fought for the bailouts. I'm just leaving the GOP.

I'd never vote for Grimes but I don't care about what is out of my influence.

[ItsOurTimeNow]

I voted for Bevin, even though his chances were slim. Come November, I’ll write his name in. No way will I hold my nose and vote for McConnell. The difference between McConnell and the Rat is the difference between driving over a cliff at 60mph vs. 90mph.

Voting for the ‘lesser of two evils’ is still voting for evil. I won’t partake in that.

[xzins]

I’m not sure that winning the Senate is a good thing if it appears that the House will remain in opposing hands.

I think that will enable the 2016 campaign to be all about how the right wingers have screwed up the country.

Better to allow the country to be able to lay the blame completely on the party in power in the White House.

[Foundahardheadedwoman]

Here is what you need to understand, when the Feds passed the Mine Safety and Health Act we knew its purpose was to put small operators out of business, we knew that by shutting down a mine it was theft by unlawful taking, we knew that when we could not get our day in court and be judged by a jury of our peers that it was totally unlawful, we knew that when the Feds began to inspect coal mines that did not sell their coal out of state it was a power grab and a stealing of state rights, we knew that when the Feds came in one day and declared all our equipment to be illegal and shut us down, that it was an unlawful act and theft. We knew when the Feds declared all mines to be gassy, meaning contained methane in explosive amounts that for large number of mines it was a lie to put us under the Feds thumb. We knew that the noose had been placed around our necks and would be tightened slowly till we expired. We knew when the power of press got behind the Feds to pass these unlawful laws that the free press was a lie.
This was well over thirty years ago and we fought the Feds on our own with no help. We knew that if they could do this to us they would find others like Cliven Bundy to destroy and we raised the alarm and warned you and all others we could by fighting every step of the way.
Unless you owned a small coal company you do not know or like many in the general population you bought into the children working in coal mines, the evil owners who didn’t care about the men who worked for them, we tried to tell you, you would not listen because it didn’t effect you, not then. Now when we have been driven out of business and you are seeing direct effects on you, Ky is suddenly important.
We are ignorant hillbillies that created our own problems by electing a$$holes, you see, your ox is being gored now as ours was.
Every day a new regulation is passed by some SOB in Washington that impacts your life, now all you folks are starting to wake up after we were fighting the takeover, over 30 years ago, us ignorant hillbillies. We knew you would never wake up after the firat couple of years when we told you what was happening to us and it would come to your doorstep one day if you did not help us fight. You didn’t, you watched hockey or football while your rights were stolen away because it was just a bunch of ignorant hillbillies being screwed, you never saw the big picture.
It is just peachy that you grew up in coal country but unless you felt the point of the Federal spear in your side, you do not have any more clue than the loons in Cali or New York of what went on that led to what is happening now. We knew that until it caused your tv to go off you would not start to squeal, till your comfy life was directly impacted you would not stand up. We thought you would have stood up years ago, but you did not. We were mistaken, we thought that you were Americans, like us and actually had a set, you aren’t and you don’t.
So when you call us F****** hillbillies, you need to take a close look and ask yourself what did I do during the war. You see it started long ago and the cavalry did not show up. We know that it makes no difference now what corrupt politician is elected, it is just too late. To quote one of the Founders,’may your chains sit lightly on your shoulders.....’, I am sure you know the rest of it.
If I sound bitter and angry it is because I am. I will admit that watching folks suddenly wake up and realize they have been royally screwed is not viewed without a certain amount of glee on my and others parts that were there and fought both inside and out of court. Now we are forced to fight once more, this time to the death, us ignorant F****** hillbillies will not go gently into that good night, no we won’t.

[Resolute Conservative]

Coal? They will be eating dirt once Bammy finishes all his executive orders with full dim and RINO support.

[smoothsailing]

Jeez what a crybaby thread.

Hopefully it's just frustration and freepers blowing off steam.

The winning strategy is simple, remember the Buckley Rule, plus never vote for the Democrat, and always go vote.