Posted on 02/26/2014 11:21:35 AM PST by SoConPubbie
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
(Excerpt) Read more at washingtonpost.com ...
Because the media thinks, or wants us to think, that the Tea Party is the Ron Paul movement grown up.
Flushing out the RINOs. Buh bye Rand.
Oh c’mon Rand. You are in the swamp and up to your azz in aligators on this one. You should have done a Ted Cruz and said you would endorse no one in the 2014 primaries. Live and learn.
I think this is the biggest problem with the entire republican leadership. They try to say and do the right things, yet are afraid to fight. There are a number of us here who watched Harry Reid controll the agenda of the Senate from the Minority leaders position, why does McConnell raise the white flag so often.
McConnell needs to go because he is unwilling to lead a fight, since just the budget compromise he has lied when he responded to the questions of When and Where will you fight?
For the same reason that they wanted Huckabee in 2008 and Santorum in 2012 to represent Social Conservatism.
They made them in satirical caricatures that were easy to ridicule, and beat, rather than the authentic thing.
I’d call Mich McConnell a Chuck Schumer in drag. McConnell is a sleazy weasel.
Yes, and now if you lose your job you are really being set free to explore your inner genius.
We are supposed to be a little better than the democrat spinners.
EL BINGO!
Setting the bar pretty low.
And yet he did not vote to end the filibuster, so be must have decided that the effort was worthwhile. Why is he being mealy-mouthed now?
Sometimes Rand Paul makes be wonder if he is really Rand Paul.
Sometimes Rand Paul makes me wonder if he is really Rand Paul.
Who put Arlen Specter, Graham, Hatch, Flake and Cornyn on the judiciary?
Mitch McConnell voted for amnesty in 1986 [RC #335, 10/17/86]
-Mitch McConnell co-sponsored amnesty in 2000 (AP, Congress considering bill granting amnesty to illegal immigrants 04/10/00)
-Mitch McConnell voted for amnesty in 2006 [RC #157, 05/25/06]
-Mitch McConnell voted against the border fence [RC #200, 07/13/06] before he decided to vote for it after it became popular [RC #262, 09/29/06]
-As his poll numbers began to tank ahead of the 2008 election, he changed his tune. He voted against the 2007 amnesty bill [RC #235, 06/28/07].
http://madisonproject.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/02/McConnell-Amnesty-timeline.pdf
Note: this topic was posted 2/26/2014.And some sidebars, thanks SoConPubbie.
Rand Paul On Shutdown: "Even Though It Appeared I Was Participating In It, It Was A Dumb Idea"I said throughout the whole battle that shutting down the government was a dumb idea. Even though it did appear as if I was participating in it, I said it was a dumb idea. And the reason I voted for it, though, is that it's a conundrum. Here's the conundrum. We have a $17 trillion debt and people at home tell me you can't give the president a blank check. We just can't keep raising the debt ceiling without conditions. So unconditionally raising the debt ceiling, nobody at home wants me to vote for that and I can't vote for that. But the conundrum is if I don't we do approach these deadlines. So there is an impasse. In 2011, though, we had this impasse and the president did negotiate. We got the sequester. If we were to extend the sequester from discretionary spending to all the entitlements we would actually fix our problem within a few years.[Posted on 11/19/2013 12:16:51 PM by Third Person]
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