Just because he opposes the strikes on Syria, don't assume Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R. KY) is doing it for the right reasons:
http://www.buzzfeed.com/...
Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell’s campaign Tuesday used his opposition to military strikes against Syria as part of fundraising pitch, his announcement is a “ringing example of why we need to keep Mitch fighting for us in the United States Senate.”
Earlier in the day McConnell took to the Senate floor to announce his opposition, arguing that “being credible on Syria requires presenting a credible response, and having a credible strategy. And for all the reasons I’ve indicated, this proposal just doesn’t pass muster.”
Then, McConnell’s campaign manager Jesse Benton sent out a fundraising email to supporters with the subject line “Syria.”
In the email, Benton argues that “Mitch made it very clear to me from the beginning that he does not politicize issues of national security. He believes that America’s strength in the world should not be subject to the political theatre that so often takes hold of
Washington these days.”
Benton goes on to praise McConnell’s speech, saying it “showed the kind of leadership and statesmanship that is so often lacking in politics” before ultimately making a pitch for campaign cash. - BuzzFeed, 9/10/13
Here's the fundraising e-mail:
And here's a little more background info:
http://thinkprogress.org/...
McConnell didn’t announce his position on Syria until Tuesday morning, becoming the last Congressional leader to weigh in on the matter. ”A vital national security risk is clearly not at play, there are just too many unanswered questions about our long-term strategy in Syria, including the fact that this proposal is utterly detached from a wider strategy to end the civil war there, and on the specific question of deterring the use of chemical weapons, the president’s proposal appears to be based on a contradiction,” he said on the floor.
McConnell is one of the few senate Republicans facing a tough re-election campaign in 2014 and is running against a primary challenger — Tea Party candidate Matt Blevin — who also opposes intervention in Syria. The senator has courted and won the endorsement of Sen. Rand Paul (R-KY), a leading critic of the administration’s Syria strategy.
Last week, Rep. Michael Grimm (R-NY) also faced criticism for soliciting donations based on his decision to change his position from supporting military strikes to opposing them, though his press secretary insisted that the message was sent in error. - Thin Progress, 9/11/13
And you are going to love McConnell's campaign's explanation:
http://tv.msnbc.com/...
McConnell’s top campaign aide insisted the Senate leader “does not politicize issues of national security.” But in the close of the email, Benton quickly calls for money from McConnell’s supporters to keep him in the Senate.
“Today was a ringing example of why we need to keep Mitch fighting for us in the United States Senate. Anything that you can contribute will go a long way towards our goal,” the letter concludes.
McConnell’s Democratic opponent, Alison Lundergan Grimes, criticized the tone and timing of the email through her campaign spokeswoman, accusing the Senate majority leader of “exploiting” the debate.
“Senator McConnell’s fundraising email is outrageous and shameful,” spokeswoman Charly Norton said in a statement. “It is politics at its worst. Senator McConnell is exploiting the tragedy in Syria for his own political gain. It took him weeks to tell Kentuckians where he stood, yet only seconds to fundraise off of this humanitarian crisis.” - MSNBC, 9/11/13
This really should be a surprise to no one. McConnell's tried this type of shit before:
http://www.dailykos.com/...
Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) joined Sen. Rand Paul’s filibuster about 12 hours into the marathon, 13-hour speech. Now he’s using the speech as an opportunity to raise funds for his own reelection.
In an e-mail, McConnell asks his supporters to sign a petition declaring, “I stand WITH Rand Paul and Mitch McConnell. They are shining examples of Republican leadership.”
He says he wants his fellow Kentucky Republican to be “overwhelmed with support and thanks for the battles he is fighting.” He also warns that ”President Obama has put a huge target on my back and will no doubt soon start eyeing Rand as well.”
Along with the petition, the e-mail encourages readers to donate to or volunteer for McConnell’s reelection campaign. - Washington Post, 3/11/13
While Tea Party challenger Matt Bevin (R. KY) may have helped pressure McConnell to oppose the strikes, there's one issue he's not giving up on beating McConnell with: Obamacare:
http://tpmdc.talkingpointsmemo.com/...
“It is a surrender. I think sadly it has more to do with not wanting to rock the boat for reelection,” Matt Bevin, a Senate candidate from Kentucky, told TPM in a wide-ranging interview. “It’s an absolute surrender — a cop out to say they’re for repeal, but not for defunding Obamacare. That’s an absolute cop out.”
Bevin, a well-funded businessman from Louisville, is seeking to oust the Senate minority leader in the state’s Republican primary next spring. He rejected the view, espoused by GOP leaders, that it’s impractical to withhold votes for funding the government when the fiscal year ends Sept. 30 unless Obamacare is defunded. Senior Republicans say they lack the votes in the Senate and, having learned their lessons from the shutdown debacles of the 1990s, have resisted the quixotic strategy even as conservatives mount an all-out push.
“I am not convinced that Democrats are willing to shut the government down. I say vote to fund everything else, even things we’re opposed to, in exchange for not funding Obamacare,” Bevin said. “That way it’s a pure play — this is about funding Obamacare or not. And defund it in its entirety. I don’t believe the Democrats or the president would be willing to jam this down peoples’ throats. I think they would blink and defund this and give it a one-year pass. That’s exactly what Republicans should hold them to. Let the Democrats blink.”
McConnell doesn’t want to jeopardize the GOP’s chances of taking back the Senate majority next year. Even as a fervent opponent of the health care law, he has resisted the shutdown push, telling constituents that although he wants to stop Obamacare, “shutting down the government will not stop Obamacare.” - TPM, 9/10/13
And how does McConnell react to Bevin's attack? By attacking Alison Lundergan Grimes (D. KY):
http://thehill.com/...
Sen. Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) released a new radio and Web ad Monday defending his record on ObamaCare against attacks from conservatives, who have pilloried the Senate minority leader for refusing to support defunding the healthcare law.
But McConnell's ad makes no mention of his main antagonist on the issue, conservative primary challenger Matt Bevin (R).
Instead, the ad targets McConnell's presumptive Democratic opponent, Kentucky Secretary of State Alison Lundergan Grimes, charging that she "stands with Obama" in her support of the law.
"Three years after Barack Obama and liberals in Congress forced their bad healthcare law on the American people, we’re finding out what ObamaCare really means for Kentucky," a narrator says in the ad, which outlines a series of common conservative complaints against the law.
"So where do the candidates stand?" the narrator asks. It then notes that Lundergan Grimes supports the law, while McConnell opposes it. - The Hill, 9/9/13
Take of that response however way you want. McConnell wants to make Obamacare an issue in his campaign but on his own terms. Plus I don't think Mitch wants people to take a look at where his campaign funding is coming from:
http://www.politico.com/...
In 2005, David A. Jones Sr., founder of health insurance giant Humana Inc., needed help raising money for a Louisville, Ky., parks project he was personally overseeing. So Jones and then-Louisville Mayor Jerry Abramson — a Democrat — turned to the most powerful person in Kentucky politics: GOP Sen. Mitch McConnell. They asked McConnell for $10 million in federal funds for the project. Instead, the then-Senate majority whip came through with $38 million in a spending earmark, breaking the good news himself to Jones in a late-night phone call.
Jones has also been quite helpful to McConnell; the veteran senator’s earmark came several months after it was disclosed that Jones and the charitable foundations he and his family control had donated $1.6 million to the McConnell Center at the University of Louisville, which both men attended.
Jones didn’t personally benefit from the park earmark — in fact, he donated $15 million of his own money to the parks project. He told POLITICO that none of the funds from the earmark were used to purchase properties from him or his family, who have real estate interests in the Louisville area. A McConnell aide likewise waved off any suggestion of impropriety.
But Jones has been one of McConnell’s most powerful and lasting political benefactors. Jones, his family and Humana employees have given hundreds of thousands of dollars to McConnell’s political committees over the past several decades, making them one of McConnell’s biggest sources of campaign dollars, campaign reports show. - Politico, 9/10/13
I can think of quite a few reasons why McConnell wouldn't want a lot of attention on that but one reason that really comes to mind is the fact that Kentucky voters despise the fact that Mitch likes unlimited campaign contributions:
http://www.washingtonpost.com/...
The majority of Kentucky voters view Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell unfavorably and have deep concern about his support for unlimited campaign contributions, according to a poll released Wednesday by Public Campaign Action Fund, a group that seeks to limit the influence of big money on politics.
The statewide survey, conducted by Lake Research Partners, shows the Republican senator’s vulnerability on the issue of money in politics, one that his opponents plan to exploit in his upcoming reelection fight.
The poll of 5,000 registered voters in Kentucky, who were surveyed between Aug. 5 and Aug. 15, found that 52 percent had an unfavorable impression of McConnell. At the time, 46 percent said they would back his Democratic challenger, Alison Lundergan Grimes, while 40 percent said they would vote for McConnell and 14 percent were undecided. The poll has a margin of sampling error of 1.4 percentage points.
Voters were particularly receptive to the argument that McConnell backs increasing the role of big money in politics, with 53 percent saying they had “very serious doubts” about his support for allowing “wealthy CEOs, lobbyists and special interest PACS to give unlimited amounts of money to politicians, including himself.” - The Washington Post, 9/10/13
Unlimited campaign contributions have helped McConnell stay in power and he's going to need that money now more than ever:
http://atr.rollcall.com/...
“I’m a fiscal conservative and I am somebody who will vote as I speak, not like him,” Bevin said.
Of course, taking on the top Senate Republican in the primary will not be easy, and Bevin has already faced attacks. McConnell is one of the most well-prepared incumbents of the cycle, with nearly $10 million in cash on hand by the end of June.
“This will be an expensive race,” Bevin conceded. “There isn’t an amount of money he can’t and won’t raise.” Bevin, who could also at least partially self-fund, added that he’ll raise “what is needed to win this.” - Roll Call, 9/10/13
But McConnell is trying to tie Syria to Obamacare:
http://www.politico.com/...
Senate leaders agreed to keep the debate over Syria out of an energy bill on the floor but there will be no such luck for Democrats on Obamacare.
Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) submitted an amendment Wednesday evening to the energy efficiency bill under consideration that would delay the health care law’s individual mandate for a year. It would also codify the White House’s one-year delay of the employer mandate, which Republicans believe may be legally murky.
Though no vote on the delay is guaranteed, the top Republican’s lead sponsorship of the amendment gives it extra heft. Agreements on which amendments receive consideration in the Senate are negotiated by McConnell and Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.). - Politico, 9/11/13
We'll see how that plays out. Bevin's not the only thing giving Mitch a headache these days. He also has women problems:
http://www.courier-journal.com/...
When the Democratic firm Public Policy Polling released its survey on the Kentucky Senate race in late July, it found that Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., and his Democratic challenger, Kentucky Secretary of State Alison Lundergan Grimes, were in a virtual tie.
Grimes led McConnell 45 percent to 44 percent, with 11 percent undecided, the poll found.
At the time, the poll, which was done for the Progressive Change Campaign Committee and Democracy For America, did not include a breakdown of where Kentucky’s men and women voters stood, but the company shared them with me late last week: Grimes led McConnell 50 percent to 38 percent among women; McConnell led 51 percent to 40 percent among men.
You could say both Grimes and McConnell have a gender gap.
But the larger issue for the GOP is connecting with women voters, as exit polling, various surveys and the party’s own internal analysis have shown. That’s important because there are more women voters than men voters. Indeed, political analysts contend that missteps by Republican candidates in 2012 who shared their unconventional views on rape — including Indiana’s Richard Mourdock — contributed to the party’s failure to capture the Senate.
That is the background against which Republicans and Democrats exchanged punches late last week after Brad Dayspring, a spokesman for the National Republican Senatorial Committee, said in an email to The Hillthat Grimes was an “empty dress.” - Louisville Courier-Journal, 9/9/13
And Grimes scored a big campaign contributor recently:
http://www.politico.com/...
Kentucky Senate candidate Alison Lundergan Grimes will tap the Hollywood money well later this month with the help of entertainment industry power broker Jeffrey Katzenberg, according to an email invitation obtained by POLITICO.
In a message to undisclosed recipients, Katzenberg, the DreamWorks executive and prominent Democratic political donor, urged his allies to turn out to support Grimes at events in Los Angeles on Sept. 26.
Katzenberg disclosed that he has already maxed out to Grimes’s campaign against Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell, and called the Kentucky race “a pivotal election that can get the Senate working again.”
“There is no more important election being held next year in this country,” Katzenberg writes in the email. “As the Senate’s Minority Leader since 2007, McConnell has used the filibuster 420 times to block legislation and appointments that were supported by a clear majority of Senators … We are talking about outright obstruction of the democratic process.”
He continues: “Alison is the antidote to McConnell and all he represents. She can win, and she will win if she gets the support she needs.” The events in Los Angeles, Katzenberg says, “will be a chance to help her seize the momentum and get her campaign off to an early and strong start.” - Politico, 9/3/13
Of course Katzenberg can't be the only one funding Grimes' campaign. If you'd like to donate to her campaign, you can do so here:
https://services.myngp.com/...