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Mitch McConnell Embraces the Anti-Rush Limbaugh Playbook
redstate.com ^ | 10/4/13 | Erick Erickson

Posted on 11/04/2013 5:10:02 AM PST by cotton1706

For the last year, the left has engaged in an organized campaign to drive Rush Limbaugh off the air. Knowing they cannot go after Rush Limbaugh directly, the left has launched repeated boycotts against any advertisers who dare advertise while Rush Limbaugh is on. Consequently, some advertisers decided to stop advertising at all on political talk radio, depriving the genre as a whole of resources.

And it still hasn’t hurt Rush Limbaugh.

Mitch McConnell has decided to embrace the same strategy in his war against the Senate Conservatives Fund. He can’t attack the Jim DeMint created Senate Conservatives Fund outright, so instead he will launch an all out war against anyone who does business with the Senate Conservatives Fund.

This story, from the New York Times, is intriguing. McConnell has demanded, via the National Republican Senatorial Committee, that anyone who wants GOP support stop hiring Jamestown Associates. The organization is used by a number of Republican elected leaders and candidates. In fact, Senator Ted Cruz uses Jamestown Associates. So does Governor Chris Christie. For that matter, Senators Marco Rubio, Roy Blunt, Mark Kirk, Dan Coats, and Pat Toomey use Jamestown Associates too.

But McConnell is perfectly happy destroying a private company his Senate Republican colleagues use because Jamestown Associates also helps the Senate Conservatives Fund. And the Senate Conservatives Fund just endorsed Matt Bevin against Mitch McConnell.

McConnell would rather rule in Hell than serve in Heaven. He’d rather be minority leader, than have a Republican Senate majority without him.

It’s all the sadder still in that McConnell worked against Ted Cruz’s effort to defund Obamacare. 280,000 Kentuckians are losing their insurance. But McConnell would rather drive a private enterprise out of business than fight for those Kentuckians losing their health insurance. If only McConnell had put as much energy into stopping Obamacare as he has stopping a business that does work with the Senate Conservatives Fund.

Outside observers have listed the Kentucky Senate race as a toss up. It does not lean McConnell’s way. This is very important to note. This is very important to understand. The polling in the race is terrible for McConnell. Charitably it breaks even against an empty suit of a Democrat. McConnell has already spent over $6 million. He is the weakest Republican incumbent up for re-election in 2014. Were it another Senator, McConnell would be pressuring him to retire.

McConnell has never been the grand strategist some claim he is. He is a bully who tries to get his way through intimidation. The New York Daily News notes McConnell aide Josh Holmes alluding to the movie “A Bronx Tale” with this quote:

“S.C.F. has been wandering around the country destroying the Republican Party like a drunk who tears up every bar they walk into,” Holmes said. “The difference this cycle is that they strolled into Mitch McConnell’s bar and he doesn’t throw you out, he locks the door.”

Mitch McConnell is the thug in the bar who controls through intimidation. He badgers, bullies, threatens, and cajoles others into giving him his way. Because of his position, most yield to his intimidation. And when others do not yield, he goes after their associates.

But there is a new paradigm of empowered grassroots activists at work. They are not intimidated. They will not be silenced. They do not fear McConnell. They hate him and want him out of office. McConnell has always relied on an alliance of staffers who’ve moved to K Street to get rich. He gives them access, they make lots of money, then they return money to his campaign coffers. It is a loyalty that extends to a lobbyist class now attacking the Senate Conservatives Fund because their gravy train may be ending. But it is a loyalty that does not exist at the grassroots level within the conservative movement or even Kentucky.

The only tactic McConnell can respond with is driving private businesses into the ground if they dare help those opposed to him — no matter who else they help. Senate Republicans and challengers in the races to be decided next year need to understand the bottom line here — Mitch McConnell is making it the NRSC’s job preservation of Mitch McConnell, damn the rest of the candidates. Don’t believe me? Where are the other groups the NRSC is blackballing? Right now, the only ones being blackballed are the ones who are on the opposite side of Mitch McConnell in Kentucky.

I’m giving another $100.00 to the Senate Conservatives Fund. If Mitch McConnell wants to bleed the NRSC dry to save him at everyone else’s expense, I’m happy to make that happen. Or, he can just retire.


TOPICS: Constitution/Conservatism; Politics/Elections
KEYWORDS: elections

1 posted on 11/04/2013 5:10:03 AM PST by cotton1706
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To: cotton1706

McConnell’s options would now seem to now include switching parties.

The stink of his self-interest is almost too much to bear.

I’ve never given a dime to a politician, ever, but this election cycle I’ll give to anyone running against a RINO.


2 posted on 11/04/2013 5:19:01 AM PST by IncPen (When you start talking about what we 'should' have, you've made the case for the Second Amendment)
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To: cotton1706

The Turtle’s time in the Senate is over, it is time for a bloodless revolution. If that doesn’t work then maybe it is time to rethink things


3 posted on 11/04/2013 5:19:47 AM PST by WilliamRobert (Rafael Cruz is an American hero, and he makes me proud to be Texan.)
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To: cotton1706

McConnell is cooking and basting his own goose. He is GONE. I am in IL-ANNOY and he keeps mailing me crap. He may have a lot of Combine Friends in ILL-ANNOY, but he certainly is not a Conservative. McConnell, McCain, and Graham have to GO.


4 posted on 11/04/2013 5:22:53 AM PST by SERKIT ("Blazing Saddles" explains it all.......)
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To: SERKIT
I am glad he figured out I am at war with him and the other RINO’s. They are now letting it show.
5 posted on 11/04/2013 5:29:54 AM PST by jimpick
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To: cotton1706
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/3087247/posts
6 posted on 11/04/2013 5:48:29 AM PST by Servant of the Cross (the Truth will set you free)
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To: cotton1706

VERY misleading title.


7 posted on 11/04/2013 6:12:01 AM PST by JT Hatter (Who is Barack Obama? And What is He Really Up To?)
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To: IncPen

Mitchie The Kid is the poster boy for what is wrong with the GOP. He and all the others like him have got to go. If you can scrape $10 together to give to Matt Bevins do it.


8 posted on 11/04/2013 6:53:27 AM PST by Georgia Girl 2 (The only purpose of a pistol is to fight your way back to the rifle you should never have dropped.)
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To: JT Hatter

Yes, very misleading title.


9 posted on 11/04/2013 7:00:20 AM PST by TribalPrincess2U (0bama's agenda—Divide and conquer seems to be working.)
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To: cotton1706

McConnell just another good old boy member his time is up.


10 posted on 11/04/2013 7:24:44 AM PST by Vaduz
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