Mr. Popularity shares a beer with a glass of wine.
Buried in
this Politico analysis on how the tea party has supposedly been unscathed in the "GOP civil war" is this nugget about how Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell is conducting his alleged crusade against teapartiers, the one in which he is trying to cut off business to D.C. operatives who work with groups that support his primary challenger:
The NRSC in particular has ramped up its efforts—taking on the Senate Conservatives Fund after the tea party group targeted Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell.
So far, the threats have done little to scare conservative activists or bring them any closer to working with the party.
Take Jamestown Associates, the group singled out for working with the SCF. It has continued to do work with the group, despite the pressure.
In part, the warning shot was an empty threat: The NRSC hasn’t done work with Jamestown since the 2010 cycle, after the firm posted an advertisement seeking “hicky” looking actors for an ad in a West Virginia race.
So McConnell's big move was to put a firm that was already on the NRSC's blacklist onto the NRSC's blacklist all over again. In other words, his big move was to do nothing. But don't worry, McConnell's supposed jihad has not been entirely for naught:
The establishment has had at least one success. Lisa Lisker and compliance firm Huckaby Davis Lisker are winding down the work they do for the SCF, according to a source familiar with the situation.
So, McConnell et al. got rid of the Senate Conservatives Fund's accountant. Score one for Mr. Turtle! At this rate, maybe Matt Bevin will have a shot at dethroning Mitch after all.