How Mitch McConnell crushed the tea party

CNN ^ | 05-21-2014 | Peter Hamby

[PaulCruz2016]

Matt Bevin reaches into the breast pocket of his jacket and extracts a wrinkled, yellow piece of paper. "Fraud Alert," it reads, in alarming, official-seeming font. "Sensitive Materials Enclosed. Please Open Immediately."

A Republican he met received the notice in the mail a few weeks ago and showed it to Bevin, who now carries it with him wherever he goes.

Bevin, Mitch McConnell's tea party-backed Republican primary challenger in Kentucky, flattens it out on the table in the back of a community ballroom in Georgetown where he just addressed the Scott County Republican Party's Lincoln Day Dinner. The unfolded paper displays a litany of accusations against Bevin: He praised the Wall Street bailout in 2008. He doesn't pay his taxes. He padded his resume.

"This information is provided as a public service," the notice explains. It's an attack mailer from McConnell's re-election campaign, dressed up to look like an official government notice and sent to thousands of GOP primary voters across Kentucky.

[zeugma]

“It comes from a very ancient democracy, you see..."
"You mean, it comes from a world of lizards?"
"No," said Ford, who by this time was a little more rational and coherent than he had been, having finally had the coffee forced down him, "nothing so simple. Nothing anything like so straightforward. On its world, the people are people. The leaders are lizards. The people hate the lizards and the lizards rule the people."
"Odd," said Arthur, "I thought you said it was a democracy."
"I did," said Ford. "It is."
"So," said Arthur, hoping he wasn't sounding ridiculously obtuse, "why don't people get rid of the lizards?"
"It honestly doesn't occur to them," said Ford. "They've all got the vote, so they all pretty much assume that the government they've voted in more or less approximates to the government they want."
"You mean they actually vote for the lizards?"
"Oh yes," said Ford with a shrug, "of course."
"But," said Arthur, going for the big one again, "why?"
"Because if they didn't vote for a lizard," said Ford, "the wrong lizard might get in. Got any gin?"
"What?"
"I said," said Ford, with an increasing air of urgency creeping into his voice, "have you got any gin?"
"I'll look. Tell me about the lizards."
Ford shrugged again.
"Some people say that the lizards are the best thing that ever happenned to them," he said. "They're completely wrong of course, completely and utterly wrong, but someone's got to say it."
"But that's terrible," said Arthur.
"Listen, bud," said Ford, "if I had one Altairian dollar for every time I heard one bit of the Universe look at another bit of the Universe and say 'That's terrible' I wouldn't be sitting here like a lemon looking for a gin.”
― Douglas Adams, So Long, and Thanks for All the Fish

[ansel12]

Do you even read people’s posts, or just keep ranting at them.

I don’t care whether you vote for McConnell or not, I never have said anything to you or anyone else about voting for him, why do you keep ranting nonsense at me, that has nothing to do with me or my posts?

[zeugma]

The democrats have free reign because McConnell does not use the rules available to him such as the filibuster to stop them. So don’t give us this nonsense that we need a majority to stop Obama. It simply is not true. Tools and rules are and have been available for McConnell to use. He simply chooses not to use them.

While the filibuster is more flashy, I think the most powerful tool at any congresscritter's disposal is simply to deny the use of uninimous consent. Every single time a motion is made for unanimous consent, object. the legislative process will quickly grind to an absolute halt. It forces complete roll calls for every single vote. Makes them actually read the bills on the floor (2 times if I recall correctly). It's also not strenuous or taxing on any individual. If you have 3 or 4 folks willing to play the game, that's all it takes to enforce it on every single measure, no matter how small.

[Tolerance Sucks Rocks]

However, the same LIVs that shelved Bevin will be whining that McConnell will be better than Grimes, and enough other people might listen.

[tennmountainman]

Thanks for reminding me. Forgot about that rule. My point was that
McConnell has had still has numerous tools(rules) at his disposal
and has chosen not to use them to stop Obama.

[tennmountainman]

It may come as a surprise to you but this is an “open forum”. I can post
to anyone who posts here, including you, as long as I do it in a respectful way.

And I have done so in a respectful way.

It is you that has called another poster here an idiot and stupid because
he does not share your beliefs to win at all costs.

It’s called an “open forum” for a reason.

[Tolerance Sucks Rocks]

Bitch received 60 percent, according to FOX news. Bevin received 35 percent.

[ansel12]

What in the world are you talking about?

You keep making up posts for me that have nothing to do with me, for instance now you have “” your beliefs to win at all costs””

I never told anyone to vote for McConnell, and I am not a republican, so what are you raving about?

[cuban leaf]

Exactly. I don’t see Cruz as a lizard, but I can’t vote for him.

Actually, I think that even when a human gets in there is a precise mathematical formula regarding the exact time in office it takes to morph from human to lizard. It’s not much over 10 years.

[tennmountainman]

This is your post to me #115

“If you vote democrat, then you are an idiot”

Maybe this poster who said that is so fed up with McConnell, he is
willing to vote for a democrat to get him out. Maybe he lives in KY
and feels he has been trashed and crushed by McConnell.
And his solution is to get rid of McConnell by any means necessary.

[ansel12]

If you vote democrat, you are an idiot.

To: tennmountainman
If you look at post 116, you will see what I was posting to, an idiot democrat, posting on FR.

I’ve never been a republican, and on the rare occasions I don’t vote republican, I do not vote democrat.

118 posted on 5/21/2014 12:20:47 PM by ansel12

[tennmountainman]

How do you know he is a democrat?

Maybe he is so fed up with McConnell he is willing to vote for Grimes
as a protest vote against McConnell?

[ansel12]

Seriously, if you vote democrat you are an idiot, after reading your bizarre posts on this thread, I can see you voting democrat.

[tennmountainman]

Ah, now you accuse me. You know nothing about me.

Maybe it is hard for you to understand, because you are not a conservative,
but a Bushite, that conservatives in KY feel “crushed” and “thrashed” by
the primary war McConnell waged against them.

Because you are not conservative, but a Bushite, you do not understand
them and as a result do not understand the lengths they are willing to go
to rid themselves of McConnell, some even suggesting to vote for a
democrat to accomplish that goal.

If you were a conservative, you would easily understand the anger
KY conservatives are feeling now and that they want revenge on McConnel
for trashing them and bragging about crushing them.

My advice, prepare yourself for the payback KY conservatives will lay on
McConnell in the near future.

[ansel12]

Do you realize that I have never suggested anyone vote for McConnell or commented on voting for him, not in anyway, ever.

Are you aware of that?