Rand Paul: McConnell is no Arlen Specter

According to one of the tea party's leading voices, Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R), who is being challenged by conservative Matt Bevin in Kentucky's Senate GOP primary, is not an "Arlen Specter" Republican.

"It's not like we're talking about Arlen Specter here," said Sen. Rand Paul (R-Ky.), in an interview with The Washington Post. "Senator McConnell has a longstanding conservative record and for an opponent to beat him, they'll have to prove somehow that he's not a conservative."

Specter, the late Pennsylvania senator who left the GOP for the Democratic Party in 2009, was a villain-like figure to many on the right, due to his moderate positions and frequent quarrels with conservatives.

Paul's comments come as several conservative advocacy groups, such as the Senate Conservatives Fund and the Madison Group, are supporting Bevin with a flurry of donations and ads, both online and on radio.

In one recently released spot, Bevin slammed McConnell for his support for a procedural vote on a measure to extend the federal government's borrowing authority. McConnell was spurred to back that vote, in spite of his earlier opposition, after Sen. Ted Cruz (R-Texas) demanded a 60-vote threshold for "cloture" on the legislation, which ends debate.

Paul, however, said McConnell's vote doesn't mean conservatives should rally behind Bevin. "Sometimes people don't always agree on tactics or deals, and I haven't always agreed with Senator McConnell," he said. "But I was of mixed feelings whether [Cruz's effort] was worthwhile, if we weren't going to actually add anything to it, if it was just self-inflicted punishment."

Paul and McConnell have seen their alliance grow over the past few years. When Paul ran for Senate in 2010, McConnell backed his Republican primary foe, Trey Grayson, and feelings between their camps were tense. Last week

Rand Paul is right. McConnell is no Arlen Specter, he is worse. Specter is dead and can therefore damage the country no more. McConnell is alive and in the position to do irreparable damage, and he seems hell bent on doing so.

My thoughts exactly.

What difference does it make how McConnell personally thinks or votes? He's the minority leader and has constantly caved to Reed and the Demonrats. There's something to the phrase, "He's got the courage of his convictions" that simply doesn't apply to McConnell. Well, everything. When the guy musters more ire for the base of his own party than for those wrecking our nation on the other side of the aisle, something is badly FUBARed - and he thus needs to go.

McConnell is doubtless a very nice guy, and a pretty conservative guy. But he's not the right person to lead the Republicans in the Senate, and there's no way to remove him from that position short of removing him from office. OK, so be it. We are in a war for our culture, our country and our freedoms. There is no room for General Caspar Milquetoast - we need a Patton! OFF WITH HIS HEAD (Politically-speaking, that is)!

Faint praise, indeed.

I see this as the biggest back-handed slap Rand Paul can possibly dish out.

It would incite open warfare in the GOP if he came out and flatly stated "McConnell is a big RINO".

Instead, he picked one of the biggest and craziest RINOs ever (Specter), and backed off a little. And because very few people had actually compared McConnell to Specter before, Paul's statement only draws attention to the comparison.

Rick Santorum was totally devoted to Arlen Specter and never paid a price for it, from campaigning with him for president in his 1996 campaign to make the GOP a pro-abortion party, to supporting him against Toomey in 2004 and 2010, Santorum was devoted to Specter until Specter finally switched parties and returned Santorum’s funds for his 2010 race.

Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell is not an Arlen. That said, he is ineffectual, dull, lacks presence and lacks anything close to presenting the picture of a dynamic, conservative leader who can present our side convincingly and thoroughly, or who can negotiate effectively with the other side.

One suspects that Mister McConnell knows that he's the personification of the Pillsbury Doughperson, and (with apologies for being catty, but appearance is critical in today's politics) has too many chins to represent us on TV.

One also suspects that he works to keep is job out of sheer vanity.

I would love it if someone can show me where my criticism is wrong; opposing views welcome and invited

Rand, I’m not interested in your opinion on anything.

In fact, the sooner you are gone, the better.
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EXACTLY! I can’t stand that curly-haired, little political whore.

Yep.

My country is being taken over by out in the open naked Marxists.

You are either against them, and openly and vocally so, or you are with them.

There is no fence riding.

So, Mr. Paul, do not tell me who someone is not, because that is useless information, you tell me who someone is.

And since you cannot tell me who Mitch McConnell is, I’ll tell you.

Mitch McConnell is a collaborator, and from what I have seen so far, Mr. Paul, so are you.

Rand, I’m not interested in your opinion on anything.

In fact, the sooner you are gone, the better.

**
Ditto and ditto!

Raising this nation’s debt towards its financial ruin has the ring of Benedict Arnold to me.....but I guess at the end of the day Arlen was a bit more honest about his liberal Republicanism than Mitch, but not that much since he flipped and flopped all the time.

“...for an opponent to beat him, they’ll have to prove somehow that he’s not a conservative.”
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Are you serious, Tea-Party-elected Rand Paul? McConnell never met a debt ceiling he didn’t want to raise. There. Proven. Elect Matt Bevin.

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