Awkward!

Sen. Mitch McConnell (R-KY) cynically repeated his plan to do the impossible in a debate yesterday with his Dem challenger Allison “Secret Ballot” Grimes.  He wants to destroy Obamacare “root and branch,” but keep it in Kentucky!  Um, you can’t do that.  He said he wants to keep the “website,” but Kynect isn’t just some website, it is the state version of Obamacare and would automatically cease to exist if Obamacare were repealed.  If he recognizes that Kynect is good for the people of his state, why would he want to deny health care to people in other states?

 

 

He’s With Stupid

Running for Senate in his new home state of New Hampshire, where Obamacare has achieved more than 200% of its goal for signups, Scott “Empty Barn Jacket” Brown says he will repeal Obamacare, but the people who have signed up can keep it.  Obviously, it is stupid to promise people they will have Obamacare when Obamacare no longer exists.

But now Mitch McConnell is promising the same thing in Kentucky, where almost half a million people have signed up.  McConnell says the state’s exchange has nothing to do with Obamacare.  But of course if Obamacare goes, so goes the federal exchange and all the state exchanges.

The Company He Keeps

Sen. Rand Paul (R-Kentucky) has endorsed Dr. Greg Brannon for Senate in North Carolina.  On a radio talk show, Brannon refused to say that 9/11 wasn’t an inside job, alleging that “things like this have to be asked.”

 

Debt Ceiling Done

The Senate passed the debt ceiling bill, 55-43.

The procedural vote to move the bill forward took an hour as they were having trouble getting to 60.  Eventually, 12 Republicans joined with all 55 Dems, so that there were 67 votes to end the filibuster.  Despite the primary challenges they face, both Minority Leader Mitch McConnell of Kentucky and John Cornyn of Texas were among the 12..

McConnell Joins “No” Column

Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Kentucky), terrified of his junior senator Rand Paul and the Tea Party challenge to his re-election in 2014, just came out against Obama’s Syria resolution.  He’s making Speaker of the House John Boehner look even more like a Maytag repairman — very lonely.

And Ed “Profile in Courage” Markey (D-Massachusetts) has switched his vote from Present to No.

GOP Leaders Not on Same Page

So far, House Speaker John Boehner and Majority Leader Eric Cantor have come out in support of the President’s proposed Syria missile strike, but Senate  Minority Leader Mitch McConnell, dealing with a Tea Party challenge in his re-election campaign, has not.

McConnell is obviously afraid of straying from Rand Paul.  I think we know who is really the senior senator from Kentucky!

Don’t Tell Us How You Really Feel

Jesse Benton, Mitch McConnell’s 2014 campaign manager who said in a private phone call that he was “holding his nose” to work for the Senate minority leader, is trying to polish the giant turd he deposited on McConnell’s doorstep.

He now tells a Louisville TV station, “It was just so dumb, I don’t feel that way at all.”

The first half of his statement is true.

Bad as Benton looks, McConnell looks worse for not having the balls to fire him.

McConnell’s Pathetic Response

Mitch McConnell has emerged from his shell to post a photo of himself with his campaign manager, Jesse Benton, holding his nose.

Not funny and not effective, Yertle, Benton’s gotta go.

It would have been funnier to have McConnell holding his nose and pointing at Benton.

Quote of the Day — And Maybe the Month

“Between you and me, I’m sort of holding my nose for two years cause what we’re doing here is gonna be a big benefit to Rand in ’16.”

Jesse Benton, Sen. Minority Leader Mitch McConnell’s campaign manager (probably not for long) for his 2014 re-election, in a recorded telephone conversation with Republican activist Dennis Fusaro.

Fusaro leaked the conversation to the Economic Policy Journal as part of the scandal about Ron Paul’s 2012 presidential campaign paying Iowa State Senator Kent Sorenson to jump ship from Michele Bachmann to Paul.  Under Iowa law, Sorenson couldn’t be paid by a presidential campaign, but he was. We’re talking a couple of hundred thousand dollars here.

Jesse Benton, who married into the Paul family, was Ron Paul’s national campaign chairman in 2012 and Rand Paul’s campaign manager in 2010.

McConnell needs Rand Paul’s support in his fight against Tea Party primary challengers, and then of course McConnell would be heavily in Rand Paul’s debt come 2016.

This is getting nasty, and it isn’t just about Kentucky, it has national implications for the next presidential election.

McConnell Update

Devout Catholic Sean Hannity played part of the McConnell secret strategy session tape, but not the part where they laughed at St. Francis and “Brother Donkey, Sister Bird.”

I’m sure Hannity knew that some of his Catholic viewers would say, hey, they’re not laughing at Ashley Judd, they’re laughing at me and my religion.