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Senate Republican leader Mitch McConnell and challenger Matt Bevin recently received dueling endorsements from conservative heavyweights. Bevin received a boost to his campaign Friday when the Senate Conservatives Fund endorsed his bid for the seat, but a few days later McConnell is now touting the support of Tea Party favorite Florida Senator Marco Rubio. The Senate Conservatives Fund elected to back Bevin after the candidate criticized McConnell for taking part in the deal that helped end the government shutdown, which also included $2.8B for a dam project on the Ohio River. Sunday on CBS’s Face the Nation, McConnell shot back...

The Madison Project launched a new ad Monday that bashes Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell, Kentucky Republican, for failing to stop the health care law during budget negotiations. “After allowing his conference to sabotage the House Republican fight against Obamacare, McConnell unilaterally agreed to surrender every aspect of this unworkable law. He has also made it clear that he will preemptively surrender any future leverage against Obamacare as long as a Democrat is in the White House,” Project president Drew Ryun wrote in a press release.

The Senate Conservative Fund that raises money for tea party favorites has collected more than $100,000 that will go directly to the coffers of GOP U.S. Senate challenger Matt Bevin. The group, said its executive director Matt Hoskins, collected that money after just three days after endorsing Bevin. The Senate Conservative Fund was founded by former South Carolina Republican Sen. Jim DeMint in 2008. But DeMint left office to become president of the Heritage Foundation.

The deal ending the government shutdown included an obscure, one-line change to an unrelated law that increased authorization for spending on a massive water project in Kentucky, the home state of Senate minority leader Mitch McConnell. Here’s what’s known about the so-called “Kentucky kickback,” a controversy that blew up just as Senate leaders were signing off on a deal to end a government shutdown and avert default on the national debt. While the Senate had held out for a "clean" bill to fund government in its standoff with the House, the deal that Senate leaders took to the floor on...

Two days after a conservative political action committee endorsed his Republican challenger, Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell was gifted a trump card in the form of Florida Sen. Marco Rubio. Rubio, like Kentucky’s junior Sen. Rand Paul, has enjoyed immense support from the Tea Party wing of the Republican Party, and his endorsement of McConnell on Fox News Sunday gives the embattled senior senator some much-needed cover. Rubio’s backing comes at a critical time for McConnell.

Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell’s campaign spokeswoman Allison Moore attacked the Senate Conservatives Fund for endorsing McConnell’s primary challenger Matt Bevin on Friday. “Matt Bevin now has the dubious honor of standing with a self-serving D.C. fundraising group that made its name by recruiting and promoting unelectable candidates that ensured Barack Obama a majority in the Senate,” Moore said in a statement to the Washington Post. “They clearly care less about Kentuckians than they do about their reputation for supporting laughably bad candidates. Now they can add a New England bailout recipient who claims he went to MIT to their roster of...

Anthony Weiner recently lamented that "if the internet didn't exist," he'd be the mayor of New York.  In other words, if John Q. Public weren't so privy to the facts, and so readily able to investigate those facts and exchange opinions about them online, politicians could more easily manipulate their political images and determine the outcome of elections.Likewise, Kentucky Senator Mitch McConnell is now feeling the stinging disapproval of an informed public that he may not have felt twenty years ago.  Like the grand reveal at the end a Scooby-Doo episode, McConnell the "fiscally conservative" Senate leader has been unmasked in the...

Anthony Weiner recently lamented that "if the internet didn't exist," he'd be the mayor of New York. In other words, if John Q. Public weren't so privy to the facts, and so readily able to investigate those facts and exchange opinions about them online, politicians could more easily manipulate their political images and determine the outcome of elections. Likewise, Kentucky Senator Mitch McConnell is now feeling the stinging disapproval of an informed public that he may not have felt twenty years ago. Like the grand reveal at the end a Scooby-Doo episode, McConnell the "fiscally conservative" Senate leader has been...

Buried in the Senate bill to end the partial government shutdown and raise the debt ceiling is a provision to nearly quadruple funding for an Ohio River dam project, an allocation slammed as “disgraceful” by Republican Sen. John McCain.

Fellow Conservatives: U.S. Senator Mitch McConnell (R-KY), the Republican Leader, has a liberal record and he refuses to fight for our principles. It's time to replace him with a true conservative. We have done everything possible to encourage him to stand up for our values, but he won't listen. Mitch McConnell has cut deals with the Democrats to increase the debt limit, raise taxes, and fund Obamacare. He has also supported earmarks, bailouts, and amnesty for illegal immigrants. After nearly 30 years in Washington, it's time for a change. MATT BEVIN FOR U.S. SENATE We recently asked for your feedback...

Sen. Mitch McConnell's (R-Ky.) primary challenger got a boost Friday with the endorsement of a prominent national conservative group, the Senate Conservatives Fund. The endorsement of Matt Bevin comes just days after the fund blasted McConnell for his role in working toward a deal to end the government shutdown, charging in an email to supporters Tuesday that he was "leading the surrender" of the GOP. In the endorsement, Senate Conservatives Fund (SCF) Executive Director Matt Hoskins conceded that Bevin has an uphill climb in unseating McConnell, but said the group is "confident" he can win. "Matt Bevin is a true...

Sen. Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) on Thursday denied slipping an earmark into the budget deal Congress passed one day earlier. “There was no earmark,” McConnell told WVLK radio in Lexington, Ky., Thursday morning. The Army Corps of Engineers asked for the funding, he said, and so did the White House.

The Senate Conservatives Fund (SCF) criticized U.S. Senator Mitch McConnell (R-KY) Wednesday for allowing a $2 billion Kentucky earmark to be added to the debt deal he negotiated with U.S. Senator Harry Reid (D-NV). SCF Executive Director Matt Hoskins made the following statement: "Americans are familiar with the 'Cornhusker Kickback' that Nebraska Senator Ben Nelson was given in exchange for his vote on Obamacare. Well now Kentucky Senator Mitch McConnell has an Obamacare earmark of his own. "The McConnell-Reid deal not only funds Obamacare and suspends the debt limit, it also includes a provision in Section 123 that increases funding...

Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell denied slipping a special provision into a deal he co-engineered to end the 16-day government shutdown and end a showdown over raising the nation's debt ceiling. And the longtime Republican Senator from Kentucky had an admonishment for Republicans whose sole focus is the "impossible dream" of ending Obamacare.

Bottom line snip Friends, do not be discouraged by the shenanigans of D.C.’s permanent political class today. Be energized. We’re going to shake things up in 2014. Rest well tonight, for soon we must focus on important House and Senate races. Let’s start with Kentucky – which happens to be awfully close to South Carolina, Tennessee, and Mississippi – from sea to shining sea we will not give up. We’ve only just begun to fight.

A proposal to end the government shutdown and avoid default orchestrated by Republican Leader Mitch McConnell and Democratic Leader Harry Reid includes a nearly $3 billion earmark for a Kentucky project.

Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) is taking heat from Tea Party groups and his primary challenger for brokering a deal to end the government shutdown and raise the debt ceiling. Matt Bevin, who is running against McConnell in the GOP primary in Kentucky, slammed him for "selling out conservatives." "When the stakes are highest, Mitch McConnell can always be counted on to sell out conservatives," he said in a statement. "McConnell just negotiated the GOP surrender to [Senate Majority Leader] Harry Reid [D-Nev.], leading the charge to give President Obama a blank check and lifting the debt ceiling once...

Capitol Hill talk regarding the Senate deal apparently includes a provision that would take away the Congress’ power to increase the debt ceiling. According to Politico, it looks like the buzz appears to be true.: The plan includes a proposal offered by McConnell in the 2011 debt ceiling crisis that allows Congress to disapprove of the debt ceiling increase, which means lawmakers will formally vote on whether to reject a debt ceiling increase until Feb. 7. Obama can veto that legislation if it passes. If Congress fails as expected to gather a two-thirds majority to override the veto, the debt...

The US Senate has passed a bill to reopen the government and raise the federal debt limit, with hours to spare before the nation risks default. The Democratic-controlled Senate's bipartisan compromise won swift approval by 81 votes to 18. It will now be sent to the House of Representatives, whose Republican leadership has begrudgingly said it will support the measure. It comes hours before the deadline to raise the $16.7tn (£10.5tn) limit. President Barack Obama is set to speak shortly at the White House. The deal would extend the federal borrowing limit until 7 February and fund the government to...

<p>The Senate Conservatives Fund, which has suggested it might oppose Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) in a primary next year, alleges McConnell got a bit of sweetener in the Senate’s plan to reopen the government and extend the debt ceiling.</p>