Free Republic

Everything you ever thought about Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell is wrong. He really is a fighter after all. At a recent fundraiser with 300 K street donors, as reported by Politico, Mitch McConnell was in a combative mood. According to one attendee, he was “in fighting mode.” No, he was not in a fighting mode against Obama and the Democrats. As he spoke at a K street retreat, the relaxation of his comfort zone kicked in and he rallied the establishment faithful against conservatives: Mitch McConnell isn’t going to have another government shutdown on his watch. The Kentucky Republican...

Sen. Mitch McConnell’s (R-Ky.) campaign on Friday ramped up their attacks on his Republican primary opponent's business record, accusing Matt Bevin of possibly committing a misdemeanor. The allegations arose after the McConnell campaign released documents showing Bevin failed to report a tax lien on a $100,000 application for a state grant in Connecticut to reopen his business which had burned down in a fire. The McConnell camp brought in a Connecticut attorney to point out Bevin may have broken the law. “Now, I am not a prosecutor, I am not a judge and I am not a jury, but if...

Senate Republican leader Mitch McConnell and challenger Matt Bevin recently received dueling endorsements from conservative heavyweights. Bevin received a boost to his campaign Friday when the Senate Conservatives Fund endorsed his bid for the seat, but a few days later McConnell is now touting the support of Tea Party favorite Florida Senator Marco Rubio. The Senate Conservatives Fund elected to back Bevin after the candidate criticized McConnell for taking part in the deal that helped end the government shutdown, which also included $2.8B for a dam project on the Ohio River. Sunday on CBS’s Face the Nation, McConnell shot back...

The Madison Project launched a new ad Monday that bashes Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell, Kentucky Republican, for failing to stop the health care law during budget negotiations. “After allowing his conference to sabotage the House Republican fight against Obamacare, McConnell unilaterally agreed to surrender every aspect of this unworkable law. He has also made it clear that he will preemptively surrender any future leverage against Obamacare as long as a Democrat is in the White House,” Project president Drew Ryun wrote in a press release.

The Senate Conservative Fund that raises money for tea party favorites has collected more than $100,000 that will go directly to the coffers of GOP U.S. Senate challenger Matt Bevin. The group, said its executive director Matt Hoskins, collected that money after just three days after endorsing Bevin. The Senate Conservative Fund was founded by former South Carolina Republican Sen. Jim DeMint in 2008. But DeMint left office to become president of the Heritage Foundation.

Sarah Palin joined Megyn Kelly Thursday night, and said that she’s not too worried about Ted Cruz‘s efforts being defeated in Congress, saying that the right, temporarily defeated, is stronger than President Obama triumphant, and if they stay united next time, they could pull off an even bigger win.Palin said Obama’s just out of touch and railed against the president on a whole range of issues from Benghazi to “threatening to withhold paychecks” from members of the military during the shutdown.Kelly pointed out that Republicans haven’t exactly done that well throughout the shutdown, and suggested this strategy has backfired so...

Senator Marco Rubio (R., Fla.) endorsed Senate minority leader Mitch McConnell (R., Ky.) in his primary against Kentucky businessman Matt Bevin today on Fox News Sunday. Watch: [video]

Anthony Weiner recently lamented that "if the internet didn't exist," he'd be the mayor of New York. In other words, if John Q. Public weren't so privy to the facts, and so readily able to investigate those facts and exchange opinions about them online, politicians could more easily manipulate their political images and determine the outcome of elections. Likewise, Kentucky Senator Mitch McConnell is now feeling the stinging disapproval of an informed public that he may not have felt twenty years ago. Like the grand reveal at the end a Scooby-Doo episode, McConnell the "fiscally conservative" Senate leader has been...

<p>The Senate Conservatives Fund, which has suggested it might oppose Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) in a primary next year, alleges McConnell got a bit of sweetener in the Senate’s plan to reopen the government and extend the debt ceiling.</p>

Sen. Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) on Thursday denied slipping an earmark into the budget deal Congress passed one day earlier. “There was no earmark,” McConnell told WVLK radio in Lexington, Ky., Thursday morning. The Army Corps of Engineers asked for the funding, he said, and so did the White House.

The Senate Conservatives Fund (SCF) criticized U.S. Senator Mitch McConnell (R-KY) Wednesday for allowing a $2 billion Kentucky earmark to be added to the debt deal he negotiated with U.S. Senator Harry Reid (D-NV). SCF Executive Director Matt Hoskins made the following statement: "Americans are familiar with the 'Cornhusker Kickback' that Nebraska Senator Ben Nelson was given in exchange for his vote on Obamacare. Well now Kentucky Senator Mitch McConnell has an Obamacare earmark of his own. "The McConnell-Reid deal not only funds Obamacare and suspends the debt limit, it also includes a provision in Section 123 that increases funding...

Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell denied slipping a special provision into a deal he co-engineered to end the 16-day government shutdown and end a showdown over raising the nation's debt ceiling. And the longtime Republican Senator from Kentucky had an admonishment for Republicans whose sole focus is the "impossible dream" of ending Obamacare.

Senate minority leader Mitch McConnell has floated a proposal for a couple years now as a last-chance way to avert a crisis and allow the president to raise the debt ceiling without congressional approval, with Congress having the ability to strip that authority with a two-thirds veto – and that’s sort of what the bill to be voted on tonight provides for (see pages 24 ff. of the bill).Assuming it passes tonight, the debt ceiling will be suspended until February 7, meaning the treasury can borrow what it needs to fund obligations until then. Then within the next 14 days, the House and...

Bottom line snip Friends, do not be discouraged by the shenanigans of D.C.’s permanent political class today. Be energized. We’re going to shake things up in 2014. Rest well tonight, for soon we must focus on important House and Senate races. Let’s start with Kentucky – which happens to be awfully close to South Carolina, Tennessee, and Mississippi – from sea to shining sea we will not give up. We’ve only just begun to fight.

Capitol Hill talk regarding the Senate deal apparently includes a provision that would take away the Congress’ power to increase the debt ceiling. According to Politico, it looks like the buzz appears to be true.: The plan includes a proposal offered by McConnell in the 2011 debt ceiling crisis that allows Congress to disapprove of the debt ceiling increase, which means lawmakers will formally vote on whether to reject a debt ceiling increase until Feb. 7. Obama can veto that legislation if it passes. If Congress fails as expected to gather a two-thirds majority to override the veto, the debt...

Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) is taking heat from Tea Party groups and his primary challenger for brokering a deal to end the government shutdown and raise the debt ceiling. Matt Bevin, who is running against McConnell in the GOP primary in Kentucky, slammed him for "selling out conservatives." "When the stakes are highest, Mitch McConnell can always be counted on to sell out conservatives," he said in a statement. "McConnell just negotiated the GOP surrender to [Senate Majority Leader] Harry Reid [D-Nev.], leading the charge to give President Obama a blank check and lifting the debt ceiling once...

A proposal to end the government shutdown and avoid default orchestrated by Republican Leader Mitch McConnell and Democratic Leader Harry Reid includes a $2 billion earmark for a Kentucky project. Language in a draft of the McConnell-Reid deal (see page 13, section 123) provided to WFPL News shows a provision that increases funding for the massive Olmsted Dam Lock in Louisville from $775 million to nearly $2. 9 billion.

The basic framework of the deal Mitch McConnell and Harry Reid have hammered out is coming to light. The provision the GOP is crowing over — that the Obama Administration will check the income levels of those who receive a subsidy — is already the law. Meanwhile, the GOP will let the rest of the year proceed above sequester level spending, give the unions another carve out of Obamacare, and extend the debt limit to February. I’m sure at the last minute they’ll also delay the medical device tax so it looks like Harry Reid caved on something. Really, it’ll...

Senate Republicans met with President Obama for more than 90 minutes on Friday, as lawmakers search for a breakthrough agreement that could end the government shutdown and raise the debt ceiling. Like House Republicans the night before, the GOP senators departed the White House without speaking to reporters. Sen. Chuck Grassley (R-Iowa) tweeted shortly after the meeting that it was a "very good discussion." "Nothing obvious decided, but hope," he tweeted. "I'm surprised there may be progress."

-snip- ● 11:15 a.m., Senate Republicans head to the White House. Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.), who has jumped into bipartisan talks on the Senate side, leads the 46-senator GOP caucus to a meeting with Obama. McConnell has become the congressional “closer,” having helped seal three critical fiscal compromises in the past three years. Senate Republicans are pushing for a different deal from the one the House GOP initially offered. McConnell wants to cinch a deal that would both reopen the government and provide for a debt-ceiling increase, allowing then for a broader set of negotiations over tax and entitlement...