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Kentucky Senate race 2014: Mitch McConnell video goes after Matt Bevin
politico.com ^ | 8/12/13 | James Hohmann

Posted on 08/12/2013 1:53:19 PM PDT by cotton1706

Mitch McConnell believes his primary challenger is an unreliable Republican.

The Senate Minority Leader will sharpen this line of attack Monday with a 75-second YouTube video, shared first with POLITICO, built around footage of Matt Bevin telling Democrats during the Fancy Farm picnic the weekend before last, “We’re on the same team here, I’ll tell you that much.”

The video has no narrator. The only voice that appears is Bevin’s, telling Democrats on a loop that “we’re on the same team” as a series of lines appear on screen: He will not commit to supporting the GOP Senate nominee. He told National Review he has “never been a member of a Tea Party.” In 2004, he supported Constitution Party candidate Michael Peroutka.

“Bevin effectively supported John Kerry for President,” the screen says. “Bevin even brags about voting for a fringe candidate instead of George W. Bush.”

Bevin has contributed to two Democrats: former Louisville Mayor Greg Fischer and state legislative candidate Wendy Caswell, who now leads a tea party group.

The video also highlights a story noting that the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee has been highlighting Bevin’s candidacy, “trying to make trouble” for the minority leader.

And the McConnell campaign again highlights Bevin working with Sen. Richard Blumenthal (D-Conn.), “When Bevin’s Connecticut company needed help, he turned to Washington’s most liberal senator…And then, Bevin’s companies got $200,000 in taxpayer bailouts.”

The video, which campaign officials said they might turn into a television ad, ends by saying that “Bailout Bevin [is] not a Kentucky conservative.”

The Bevin campaign said McConnell is trying to distract from his own record.

“Mitch McConnell can make all the misleading web videos in the world, but it doesn’t change the fact that he voted for amnesty three times, the Wall Street bailout, the Fannie and Freddie bailout, debt limit increases, massive tax increases, and pay raises for himself, and now, he’s refusing to defund Obamacare,” spokeswoman Sarah Durand said.

A Bevin spokeswoman did not respond to a request for comment.


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To: VanDeKoik

As I understand the company bailout thing, his company had a fire, in an attempt to rebuild, he went to his senator (both democrats) to get a government loan ($200,000). And the company rebuilt the factory. Hardly a taxpayer bailout. More like a loan to save a local company and local jobs.

As to saying he’s never been part of any tea party, I think that’s selective. I’m not part of any tea party either. That doesn’t mean I don’t support them.

He gave some money to a couple of local (local!) democrats, one the mayor of Louisville and the other a legislative candidate who now leads a tea party group. So likely they’re both conservative democrats (probably more conservative than McConnell!).


21 posted on 08/12/2013 3:17:37 PM PDT by cotton1706
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To: cotton1706

Not sure is has any real impact.

It seems disjointed, hard to follow, doesn’t seem to have a point other than implying that Bevin might be a Democrat.

Whatever Team McConnell paid to have that ad put together was too much. Elementary school kids could have created a better ad.


22 posted on 08/12/2013 3:22:41 PM PDT by TomGuy (.)
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To: cotton1706
I think Bevin can take Kentucky. McConnell’s iffy. He blew his wad last time and barely made it.

The positive side of this is that if Bevin gets the nomination he will have been well and truly bloodied by McConnell and there may not be anything left for Grimes to dredge up and throw at him.

However, two things worry me. One, Bevins seems to have some really good connections to Eastern Establishment Dems, particularly Blumenthal. Who are cheering him on unrepentantly while also pointing out that, of course, he'll just go on to lose to Grimes. My political Spidey-sense is just screaming "Stalking Horse Candidate".

Second, I ... we ... got pretty badly burned by Akin and Mourdock last cycle. The GOP needs to pick up six Senate seats to claim the majority, when it only really needed four (or 3, if one counts O'Donnell going down in flames in DE in 2010). Those six seats are what stands between Dems controlling the Senate and the Senate agenda, and guys like Ted Cruz, Rand Paul and Mike Lee getting Committee/SubCommittee Chairmanships.

It wouldn't surprise me, at all, for Bevins to get the nomination and, going into the last month of the campaign, for there to be a sudden revelation of corrupt (or at least allegedly corrupt, remember Harry Reid smearing Romney over not paying his taxes?) business dealings by Bevins coming from anonymous but highly-placed former business associates (read: Blumenthal) that push Grimes over the top.
23 posted on 08/12/2013 3:26:41 PM PDT by tanknetter
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To: cotton1706
He gave some money to a couple of local (local!) democrats, one the mayor of Louisville and the other a legislative candidate who now leads a tea party group. So likely they’re both conservative democrats (probably more conservative than McConnell!).

Fischer (Mayor of Louisville) comes from a well-established Republican family. It's pretty well-understood that he ran as a Democrat because that's the only way he could get elected.
24 posted on 08/12/2013 3:28:33 PM PDT by tanknetter
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To: cotton1706

Mitch and Bohner gotta go... they be collaborators with demcrats.. Vichy-publicans...
You know... poseurs.. shills.. ringers.. phoneys.. snitches.. double-agents.. Spies.. useless..


25 posted on 08/12/2013 3:35:30 PM PDT by hosepipe (This propaganda has been edited to include some fully orbed hyperbole..)
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To: tanknetter

As I understand it, his bell company had a fire and he turned to his senator for a government loan to rebuild and save jobs.

And in either of your scenarios, Bevin’s associations with Blumenthal or Grimes beating Bevin, McConnell will be gone. Removed from power. He will no longer be the republican leader.

McConnell’s been a senator since 1985 and he lusts after power. He so wants to be majority leader, not for the republican party or the people of Kentucky or the people of the United States, but for himself. He’s a democrat handmaiden.


26 posted on 08/12/2013 3:38:51 PM PDT by cotton1706
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To: hosepipe

bm


27 posted on 08/12/2013 3:54:47 PM PDT by skinkinthegrass (who'll take tomorrow,$pend it all today;who can take your income & tax it all away..0'Blowfly can :-)
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To: cotton1706

You can also tell where he stands by how he attacks McConnell. Amnesty, Wall Street Bailouts, funding Obamacare are not on Bevin’s ‘to do list’.

In the end, we know Mitch very well. We know his record. It sucks. If Bevin doesn’t perform, we can remove him when he comes up for reelection, but no way do we want McConnell (who may lose against Grimey)


28 posted on 08/12/2013 4:01:47 PM PDT by Viennacon
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To: tanknetter

McConnell is shrewd. He’s not a novice. Anything that Bevin has hidden, Mitch WILL find it out and expose it. This leads me to believe that the worst things about Bevin are this phony bailout claim and that he funded two DINO Democrats at the local level.

Bevin is not going to implode like Mourdock and Akin. Both of those men, particularly Akin, were just not involved in public life enough to know how to handle those questions. Bevin strikes me as a ‘people person’. Akin seemed like he only associated with people at his church, in his family, or at a neighborhood barbeque.

The only potential senate candidate right now giving me that Akin vibe is Paul Broun in Georgia.

Keep in mind when thinking about those 6 senate seats that 2 or 3 essentially fall into our laps. The Democrats can’t even find a candidate in West Virginia.


29 posted on 08/12/2013 4:09:22 PM PDT by Viennacon
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