Kentucky Guv: Either McConnell Is Clueless Or Misleading On Obamacare

talkingpointsmemo.com ^ | 5/28/14 | Daniel Straus

[cotton1706]

Add Kentucky Gov. Steve Beshear (D) to the list of Democrats attacking Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY) for saying Obamacare should be repealed but Kentucky's Obamacare exchange, Kynect, should stay in place.

That statement by McConnell's campaign has sparked criticism by both the Lexington Herald Leader editorial board and Jonathan Hurst, the campaign manager for Democrat Alison Lundergan Grimes, who's running against McConnell.

Here's Beshear's response, passed to TPM on Wednesday in response to questions about McConnell's position:

Eliminating ACA means that folks with pre-existing conditions will struggle to find coverage, young adults won't be able to stay on their parents' coverage, women won't be treated equally by insurers and federal subsidies for Kentuckians will end. Senator McConnell either doesn't understand what the ACA is, or is just trying to mislead Kentucky families for his political benefit at their expense.

Beshear has been widely praised for setting up Kynect, which is often regarded as the model for state-based marketplaces created through Obamacare.

[cotton1706]

“The GOP only had 42 Senators in December 2010, and one of them was pork king Cochran, so it was quite a feat for McConnell to pull that off. He does have his moments.”

He certainly does, especially when he gets a special $3 million program thrown into the debt ceiling vote (or what ever it was), probably as payment for helping Reid get cloture.

Earmarks for me but not for thee.

[GeronL]

and another FR thread, Democrat fundraisers at the home where Thad Cochrane rents an apartment.

Again, nobody is really shocked.

[BillyBoy]

>> McConnell has provided critical procedural votes to advance Reid's agenda. <<

Mark Kirk has done so 20X more often (constantly giving "bipartisan" support and carrying the water for whatever Obama wants) and a bunch of freepers begged for me to elect that RINO turd in 2010 because "this is the most important election EVER and we MUST have a GOP majority! We can worry about RINOs later"

So here's another example where a guy on the far-left who worships abortion and gay marriage is fine and dandy to have in the GOP caucus if it "helps us get to 51", but a guy who votes conservative 85% of the time is a "liberal socailist" and we need to purge him to "make the Senate more conservative"

[BillyBoy]

>> If McConnell loses he will only have himself to blame for trashing the same voters he will need to win. Plus, he has already begun to run leftward for the general. <<

It seems like all the "McConnell deserves to lose" arguments are being recycled from 2008 when the cut-off-your-nose-to-spit-in-your-face crowd were siding with marxist Al Franken during recounts because they said Norm Coleman was a "liberal RINO" (translation: doesn't vote perfectly 100% of the time) and "deserved to lose" because it would "teach the GOP a lesson"

So, now we have a full 6 year Senate term to look back on that. How's that theory working out for us? Is the Senate "more conservative" since Coleman was purged and they cheered on Al Franken stealing an election? Did it "teach the GOP a lesson" not to run "RINOs" ?

[BillyBoy]

>> The easy solution is for the GOP to run conservative candidates that accord with the party platform, and don't attack conservatives. That seems to be out of the question. <<

Only because all these self-proclaimed "Tea Party" leaders keep running unvetted clueless candidates that are a national laughing stock like Matt "blood sports" Bevin, and then they throw a temper tantrum and blame everyone else when their cr@p candidate loses as was expected.

When credible, articulate, decent "conservative candidates that accord with the party platform" run in the primaries (Ben Sasse, Ted Cruz, Mike Lee, etc.) they get nominated by the GOP. Amazing how that works!

But I suppose the Tea Party vetting their candidates BEFORE they blindly endorse them is out of the question?

[tennmountainman]

Norm Coleman did not trash and brag about crushing his own voters in his primary.(If he had one).

There in lies the rub with McConnell.
Maybe you like being stepped on and spit on.
I’m guessing many KY conservatives do not.

Ky conservatives will decide that for themselves.
Let’s see what the coming polls look like for McConnell in KY.
The last polls( before the primary) showed a tie between Grimes
and McConnell.

[Night Hides Not]

But I suppose the Tea Party vetting their candidates BEFORE they blindly endorse them is out of the question?

But I suppose the GOPe vetting their candidates BEFORE they blindly endorse them is out of the question?

As evidence, I offer the following from 2012:

Pete Hoekstra, Denny Rehberg, Tommy Thompson, Connie Mack, Heather Wilson, Rick Berg, all preferred by GOPe, all of them lost.

Perhaps GOPe needs to do a better job of vetting, and supporting, their candidates.

[tennmountainman]

Amen Right Night!

Let us not forget Meg Whitman, Carla Fiona in CA, as well.
They were big time RINO’s.

[DoodleDawg]

I doubt you’ll have to worry about Kirk after the 2016 elections.

[BillyBoy]

Both the GOP establishment AND the Tea Party have run some terrible candidates (though both sides will deny it and blame everyone else when their anointed candidate loses), no question about that.

[Night Hides Not]

I doubt you’ll have to worry about Kirk after the 2016 elections.

Blago's getting out of jail? lol

[rollo tomasi]

?McConnell is a 90% conservative..."

ACU does not tally every vote (Cherry picks in fact), especially cloture (Only recommendations), which often shields how grounded politicians are to their "baby" the Federal Government. Were there only 25 votes in 2013, LOL.

In McConnell's case, he is a piss-poor leader who misses very badly on the fundamentals in pursuing limited government>

[Night Hides Not]

It's my view that GOPe candidates would have a better chance at winning if they went after their Democrat opponents with the same zeal they went after their Tea Party primary opponents.

Mitt Romney would likely be President today if he'd gone after Obama like he went after a few of his primary opponents. Obama's record was such a target-rich environment, but Romney never really pulled the trigger.

[rollo tomasi]

BTW, you need to absorb information from multiple sites to get a true gage, because every website has a certain agenda including the ACU.

[DoodleDawg]

Blago's getting out of jail? lol

LOL is right. No, deep blue state, Republican incumbent, presidential election year. I think Kirk is destined to be a single term senator.

[sarge83]

He has from what I hear a bad case of the “little man” syndrome.

[Political Junkie Too]

...”McConnell has provided critical procedural votes to advance Reid’s agenda. If the dem win in KY, not much changes for Reid. He still gets the votes he needs in the Senate.”...

I totally disagree with your analysis.

Remember when McConnell swooped in and undermined the House's stance on the 2011 debt limit?

McConnell unveils debt limit ‘Plan B’

Remember when McConnell tried to convince us that voting YES for cloture on the debt ceiling when voting no would stop it, and then voting NO on the final vote meant that he really voted against it?

McConnell Sparks Conservative Ire With Debt-Limit Vote

Remember when McConnell refused to support House efforts to defund Obamacare by sending separate funding bills to the Senate to keep the government open?

McConnell Shoots Down Ted Cruz's Plan To Risk Shutdown Over Obamacare

The second one with the Yes vote on cloture was particularly odious. He could have stopped it with a No vote, but he allowed the vote to go to the floor knowing that Reid had the votes, when he could have prevented it by not supporting cloture.

-PJ

[BillyBoy]

Sometimes the candidates hand picked by the GOP establishment get freeper and/or tea party support. An example being the decision to retread George Allen in Virginia after he lost in 2006 and didn't take the race seriously until the last few weeks of the campaign. I wasn't sold on the idea that Allen would run a better campaign in 2012, but plenty of freepers were.

Another example is that many of the "Bushites" (George W. Bush administration alumni) and DC beltway insiders were backing Liz Cheney's bid for the U.S. Senate in 2014, and the fact she was as establishment as it gets AND she was to the LEFT of the Republican incumbent didn't stop numerous "Tea Party" groups and the Mark Levin crowd from jumping in line to endorse her. That was proof you don't actually need to BE "anti-establishment", just market yourself as one and throw red meat to the tea party crowd, and they will gladly back your candidacy regardless of your track record and policy positions.

One of the most interesting development in this election cycle is that numerous freepers are claiming Mitch McConnell and Eric Cantor are the most evil liberal socialist pro-Obama RINOs on the planet, when both of them had HUGE support and fan clubs on here BEFORE they were in the leadership. I can't count the number of times a bunch of freepers were BEGGING the GOP establishment to run Cantor for higher office and make him a U.S. Senator or Vice Presidential nominee.

Impy's right, if Jeff Sessions were named Senate GOP leader tomorrow, he'd go from being a beloved conservative icon to worthless RINO scum overnight on this boards.

[tennmountainman]

Of course, they don’t remember these kind of “cloture votes”.
But WE DO PJ!

[tennmountainman]

You don’t know how Sessions would lead.

However, we already know how McConnell leads.