Jim Demint's Senate Conservatives Fund (SCF) is going after McConnell pretty hard, hoping for Matt Bevin, Tea Party challenger and more-conservative RWNJ.
Political Wire
The video, with transcript, is below the Orange Squiggle of Power.
The Washington Times has more. It appears that the attack ad is, shall we say, thinly sourced. If you're going to make attacks of this sort, one would think you'd get the dates right on polls and so on, but the SCF can't be bothered to be accurate even when telling the truth wouldn't hurt them. And reading the article, I find myself in the unexpected position of feeling sorry for Mitch McConnell, because the SCF is simply lying through their corporate teeth.
The ad says McConnell "tried to silence conservatives, calling them traitors." It offers no evidence that McConnell called conservatives traitors but is apparently referring to a report from Glenn Beck last October in which Beck, citing an anonymous source, said McConnell, in a private meeting with other senators, denounced some of the outside groups working against McConnell's re-election in Kentucky. Beck conceded that McConnell did not actually use the word "traitor," but, in Beck's words, "that's what everybody [in the meeting] heard." Beck said his source did not remember whatever word McConnell actually used to describe his adversaries.
Nevertheless, on the basis of one anonymously-sourced mention from Beck — one in which the radio host specifically said the word "traitor" was not used — the SCF ad says McConnell "called [conservatives] traitors."
What is the world coming to when conservative groups quote Glenn Beck to attack the Republican Senate Majority Leader, and have to lie to do it?
There's something I want to explore here, though. Jim DeMint knows Mitch McConnell. Jim DeMint worked with Mitch McConnell. For eight years, from 2005 through 2013, they were colleagues in the Senate. So why is Jim DeMint, president of the Koch's Heritage Foundation, willing to sink to this level to attack McConnell?
The ad claims Bevin polls better against Allison Lundgrem Grimes than McConnell does. That's from a poll a year old (!), and is unsupported by more recent polls. It is, I suppose, possible that in a world where unskewing of polls is taken seriously while climate change is not, that DeMint truly believes that the more conservative candidate is always the stronger candidate.
I suspect, though, the Jim DeMint really doesn't like Mitch McConnell. And I wonder why. Is it personal, or does DeMint really view Republicans of McConnell's type as being hopeless sellouts?
Also worth noting, since I'm discussing the dishonesty of the attack ad, is that they claim McConnell is a bully of conservatives "like the IRS". The debunking of that particular non-scandal has apparently not reached the SCF and / or Kentucky Republicans.
It's odd that the SCF thinks they need to lie to attack McConnell, when FSM knows there are numerous true things that they could use. It's just that the things he's really done that are bad are things that conservatives like - and thus, since the modern GOP is a scam, they must lie in order to attack from the right.
Bullying. Threats. Intimidation.
The IRS?
No.
Try Mitch McConnell, the Senate Republican leader.
That's right.
Mitch McConnell is trying to bully and intimidate conservatives just like the IRS is.
Mitch McConnell tried to silence conservatives, calling them traitors, who he "wants to punch in the nose" for criticizing his liberal votes.
And McConnell told other conservatives they'd get the "death penalty" for opposing him.
McConnell even tried to intimidate conservative Matt Bevin to stop him from running.
Why?
Because Mitch McConnell is desperate.
Polling shows conservative Matt Bevin is more electable than Mitch McConnell, who is headed for defeat in November.
McConnell is unpopular in Kentucky because he doesn't stand for anything. His ideology is power.
It's why McConnell has voted to raise the debt limit 10 times.
And why he worked with Joe Biden to pass a $600 billion fiscal cliff tax hike.
McConnell even joined Harry Reid in opposing Ted Cruz's effort to defund Obamacare.
Send a message to Mitch McConnell today.
If he wants to vote like a Democrat, he can become a Democrat.
And if he wants to act like the IRS, he can get a job with the IRS.
But don't try to fool conservatives by pretending you're one of us, Senator McConnell.
You're not.