Mitch McConnell has refused to take questions this year from the editorial board of Kentucky’s largest paper, The Courier-Journal. While a shell of its former self, the C-J remains influential. Mostly recently McConnell’s opponent, Alison Lundergan Grimes, took questions from the CJ. The board of the paper took the opportunity to ask the gotcha question:
Did you vote for Barack Obama?
I was thinking today about the questions that McConnell should be asked. The ones he won’t take. The answers Kentuckians should hear.
They are in no particular order
You have supported the repeal of the 22nd Amendment. If this occurred, presidents would not be limited to two terms. Do you believe Barack Obama should be permitted to run for a third term as president?
Your former campaign manager, Jesse Benton, resigned in disgrace in August of this year when it came to light that he was under federal investigation for criminal bribery regarding his conduct in the 2012 presidential primary in Iowa.
There is evidence that Benton directed your campaign funds to the same characters involved in the Iowa scheme.
Did you know about that in advance? What has Benton told you about the scheme? Have you hired a private lawyer? Have you talked to federal investigators? Have you appeared before a grand jury? Have members of your political or campaign staff received subpoenas? Have they hired lawyers? Is the campaign paying for their lawyers?
Why exactly did Benton resign in the first place?
And on a related note. Benton’s job as I understand it was to bring together TEA Party support under the McConnell umbrella. That’s a tough job as the true TEA Party patriots hate you intensely. Yet the TEA Party patriots (think Phil Moffett, failed gubernatorial candidate and now a candidate for the state house) have lined up behind your reelection?
Were they paid for their support? How much were they paid? Have you talked to Moffett about this? How much money, if any, has your campaign distributed to Moffett?
Last questions on Benton. And this one is a bit ironic. When Benton took the job as your campaign manager, he remarked that he was holding his nose and only doing it because it would help Rand in 2016. [Benton is a Rand loyalist. He’s married to Ron Paul’s granddaughter.]
Isn’t it ironic in 2014 that it is you, Senator, that is holding your nose in disgrace at your association with Benton and not the other way around? Is there some satisfaction in that? Or is the satisfaction tempered by the knowledge Benton brought a bribery scam to your campaign?
Benton was paid nearly $500,000 by your campaign. This is a guy who was living a basement a few short years ago. In light of everything we know now, was that a wise expenditure of your campaign funds? Were you a good steward of the dollars you raised? Would you hire Benton again?
You have identified yourself as strongly pro-life. Yet as a senator you once supported taxpayer-funded abortions for poor women who are victims of incest and rape or when the life of the mother is in danger. Do you still believe that federal funds should be used for abortion?
At the recent debate on KET with Ms. Grimes, you indicated that Kynect (Kentucky’s version of Obamacare) is just a website and that you are fine with a website. You have also indicated your desire to repeal Obamacare “root and branch.” [A nice Biblical nod to evangelical voters. See Malachi 4:1.]
The questions:
If Obamacare is repealed, the website will no longer be a marketplace for Kentuckians to purchase healthcare. Are you misleading Kentuckians when you explain it is just a website?
Why have you misled the public that Obamacare and Kynect are not the same thing?
Is this because Kynect is viewed positively in Kentucky and Obamacare is not?
Some 500,000 Kentuckians have become insured because of Obamacare. It has led to a boom at rural hospitals as these Kentuckians are taking advantage of having health insurance and seeking treatment.
When you repeal Obamacare “root and branch”, what do these Kentuckians do?
What about Kentuckians with pre-existing conditions who now have insurance, who never had it before and will then be subject to cancellation. What is your message for them?
You’ve stated Obamacare is a job-killer.
How do you reconcile that statement with Kentucky’s unemployment rate having dropped to 6.7% ? If Obamacare killed jobs, wouldn’t the unemployment have risen?
You recently featured a campaign ad from a Somerset, KY doctor who bemoaned Obamacare and its effect on her son who is diabetic. Is that doctor not aware that because of Obamacare, her son, who has a pre-existing condition, will never be denied access to a health care policy because of that condition? And won’t face lifetime limits on his care should he suffer diabetic complications.
You’ve stated marriage is between a man and woman? Why do you believe that? What would you say to LGBT Kentuckians who would seek the rights and benefits of legal marriage?
Your protégé, Judge John Heyburn, has paved the way for the recognition of gay marriage in Kentucky? What did you think about his opinion?
As a strong proponent of man/woman marriage, what are your thoughts on no-fault divorce in Kentucky? Would you support legislation mandating limits on no-fault divorce, forcing couples to prove a reason why they should be divorced?
As a person who went through divorce, do you think that would be a good idea?
Expanding on this, in the 1960's when you came of age, interracial marriage was not yet the law of the land until the famous Loving case was decided at the Supreme Court. The arguments against gay marriage are very similar to those made against interracial marriage? Are you troubled by those parallels in 2014?
Sticking to Biblical sorts of themes. Do you believe in creation? Is the Earth 5,000 years old in your judgment? Did man and dinosaurs live together? Have you been to the Creation Museum in Northern Kentucky? Are you in favor of tax cuts for the proposed Noah’s Ark museum that is in planning?
Let’s talk science Senator. You have indicated that you can’t speak to the truth of climate change because you are not a scientist. Is it necessary to be a scientist to speak on matters of science?
Do you believe in gravity? Or is it just intelligent falling? Do you take Newton’s word for it?
You’ve seen an lunar or solar eclipse or at least you’ve heard of that phenomena?
Do you believe it is an angry sun punishing the moon and earth in darkness? Or do you accept the scientific explanation for an eclipse?
Are there other widely held scientific views with which you do not express an opinion because you are not a scientist? Do you believe Neil Armstrong walked on the moon?
Let’s talk about voting. You’ve made much of the fact that your opponent won’t indicate if she voted for President Obama.
What about you Senator? You’ve said you voted for Nixon three times.
With a half-century of history behind you, do you believe in 2014 that Nixon was the man for the job in 1960. That he would have been a better President than Kennedy? If yes, why?
You've served Kentucky for 30 years. You remain wildly unpopular with your constituents. To what do you attribute that?
Money in politics. Your most enduring legacy as a politician may be your belief that money is the lifeblood of politics. You've preached this for 40-plus years. It is a core belief.
I wanted to ask about that. Your former senate staff (those that left your employment and became lobbyists) have become extremely wealthy lobbying you on behalf of private interests. One aide, Hunter Bates, had indicated there is "more money than I could count" to be made as a lobbyist trading on his relationship with you.
Is that a good thing for Kentucky? Why? It sounds like corruption, the public interest being ruthlessly traded for campaign donations.
You spoke eloquently as the County-Judge Executive in Louisville in 1980 about urban sprawl. That we can limit urban sprawl that makes us prisoners to our automobiles. You spoke in favor of attractive public transportation and against strong laws against polluters. You spoke of strict environmental controls.
Do you still share those beliefs? What would you do today to limit urban sprawl? To limit our dependence on the automobile? To increase public transportation?
You recently joked privately about Joe Biden’s son being discharged from the military because of his drug use. Do you think the conduct of candidate’s children should be public fodder?
Did you appreciate the discussion a few years ago when it was learned that your daughter, who is a teacher, had disciplined elementary school students by tying them to a chair and taping their mouths shut.
Hahahaha Senator. Don’t answer that one. Out of bounds right?
Education. Higher education. You said this year that not everyone needs to go to Yale in the context of the cost of attending college. Do you really believe that? That a person who is of high enough academic standing to be admitted to Yale should not go to Yale because it is expensive? One of the most revered institutions in the world. And you’d suggest they not attend if they are from a poor family? That can’t be what you meant Senator.
Recently you explained your great wealth. You weren’t happy to do it, but you told Kentuckians you didn’t earn your wealth. Your wife inherited it when her mother died.
How did your wife’s family earn that money? Chinese shipping? Shipping goods made in China to the United States. Can you see the connection between your inherited wealth (earned from shipping Chinese-manufactured goods to the U.S.) and the closing of Kentucky manufacturing facilities? What I mean, Senator, products that used to be made in Kentucky, think Fruit of the Loom, are now made in China. And shipped back on boats that belonged to your wife’s family.
How would you explain that to a family that lost their job in Kentucky?
Minimum wage. You were for it before you were against it, although to your credit, in recent years you’ve been against it consistently. A few questions.
The vast majority of Kentuckians that earn the minimum wage are not teenagers. They are 20 and over. For most it is a not an entry level job. What would you say to that working person? Work harder? Get a second job? Negotiate better?
It is has been said notably by your wife when she was Labor Secretary that the real minimum wage is zero. Do you agree with that? Would you support efforts to lower the minimum wage? Or abolish it altogether?
I’ll finish with questions about your campaign slogan, Guns Coal Freedom.
Guns. What guns has President Obama taken away? Where did he put them? Which ones did he try to take away? How did you stop him? Or is this really a canard? No one is coming for the guns and you know it?
You are NRA-endorsed this year. When you first ran for Senate in 1984, the NRA endorsed your opponent. Why did you think they did so? Why do you think they now support you?
Coal. You are 30 years into your Senate career. If you were going to save coal, was 30 years not enough?
Freedom. What freedoms are in peril for Kentuckians. They purchase guns when they want. They attend church. They travel. They drink. They gamble. They live as they wish in their homes and their communities. We enjoy great freedoms.
What would you do to increase those freedoms? How would we become more free?
What are we constrained from doing presently?
Thank you for coming in today Senator McConnell. Good luck.
[Some of these questions and background came from my book, The Zen of McConnell.]
