There have been many recent political signs and portents with regards to Senator Mitch McConnell's reelection chances in 2014. For those of you into reading the entrails for divine guidance, I would recommend reading Joe Sonka's blog for the LEO, a weekly published in Louisville. The Huffington Post also published some articles on McConnell's calling in the so called cavalry - Karl Rove and his American Crossroads group. Basically, it appears, for now, that McConnell is unpopular with the Republican base, but to make matters worse, the DINOS and independents that McConnell relies upon to win general elections have soured on him. However, most political observers are waiting to see if the Tea Party nuts will force McConnell into a primary demolition derby. Frankly, I think that McConnell is ripe for just such a challenge for a simple reason: he failed to deliver on making Obama a one term president.
McConnell said it was his number one priority to make President Obama a one term-er. And he did organize hundreds of filibusters to kill anything that moved like progressive legislation in the U.S. Senate, or Obama endorsed. It was all part of the Master Plan to demonstrate to the American voter that Obama had nothing to show for his efforts, other than a shitty economy that is. Everyone would conveniently forget that it was conservative Republican policies that had ruined the American economy under George W.
Too bad there more than enough people to remember George W. Bush and blame him for the present economic mess. And Obama did do a pretty good job of reminding folks that Romney was advocating for more Bushian economic policies. Then, to make matters worse, we had to have that dreadful election result!
Now, far be it from me to give advice to any Tea Party stalwart on how to challenge Mitch McConnell, but I think a simple, but effective message is that Mitch failed at his job. Yes, Mitch can argue that he put up a herculean effort with his filibusters, but I don't think that explanation will cut it with Republican voters in Kentucky. Remember, we are dealing with people who will tell you straight faced that Obama is a communist, when they are in mixed company that is.
Explanations for failure are lost on those kind of voters.
Also, McConnell's recent fundraising letter hysteria about Obama being a "gun grabber" can be used by a Tea Party challenger. The obvious retort to Mitch's gun grabbing remark is that Kentuckians who cherish their Second Amendment rights would have no reason to worry if McConnell had done what he promised and defeated Obama. No Obama, no gun grabbing.
Granted, by any rational standard Mitch has done everything within his power to defeat Obama and the Democrats. In fact, I wish most Democrats had Mitch's ruthlessness when it came to abusing power and the democratic process. Instead, Democrats have Harry "Hand Shake" Reid. We on the left think that Mitch has done a spectacular job of screwing the American people over, but from the right in Kentucky, anything short of burning down the White House with Obama in it just doesn't cut it.
If McConnell has a primary challenge and loses, it will be because he did not deliver on the most important promise to Republicans.