Mitch McConnell's hopes of enlarging his very narrow majority in the Senate—or even keeping it—are looking dimmer all the time, thanks to the ongoing Republican civil war and the agent of chaos in the Oval Office. The ascension of Donald Trump has really attracted the crazy in Republican primaries. That's exacerbated McConnell's well-deserved woes as he looks to pick off otherwise vulnerable Democrats this November. The conflict is spilling over onto the floor, as well, with two retiring Republicans, Bob Corker (TN) and Jeff Flake (AZ) regularly requiring intervention and attention to keep them in line.
Republican tensions have flared even in contests where there are no competitive primaries. Corker lavished praise Wednesday on Tennessee’s leading Democratic contender, former governor Phil Bredesen, calling him “a very good mayor, a very good governor, a very good business person,” who could win in November.
The remarks set off alarm bells at the highest levels of the Republican Party and supporters of the leading GOP candidate in the race, Rep. Marsha Blackburn, interpreted them as a personal slight. […]
The three candidates running for the GOP nomination to challenge Sen. Joe Manchin III (D-W.Va.) have created a prime example of a primary that has become an early distraction from Republican goals. […]
At a candidate forum Wednesday in Missoula, Mont., former Billings judge Russ Fagg laid into the most well-funded candidate in the race, state Auditor Matt Rosendale, calling him a Maryland transplant who came to the state only to run for office. Allies of Sen. Jon Tester (D) have rejoiced at a line of attack they will probably pick up in the fall if Rosendale, who cuts his hair in the same flat-top style as Tester, is the nominee.
Perhaps the nastiest race in the country has been playing out in Indiana, where Sen. Joe Donnelly (D) is running for reelection. All three Republican candidates have been tearing into each other for months, questioning one another’s motives, conservative credentials and allegiance to Trump. Led by Mike Braun, a self-funding business executive, the candidates have spent more than $3 million on ads since Feb. 28.
Republicans are going to get out of this primary season having spent millions and having the emerging candidates bloodied and with plenty of enemies in their own party. Then McConnell is going to have months of fights within his conference and with the House Republicans who were on the edge of disintegration even before Speaker Paul Ryan decided to bail out. Between now and the election Congress will have to pass another budget and avert another government shutdown. They'll have a massive fight to pass a farm bill in which the House has staked out an extreme right position in a bill that could never pass the Senate. They'll have bruising nomination fights over Trump's controversial and unqualified nominees. And they'll have whatever Trump, in all his volatile, blustering incompetence, throws at them.
Couldn't happen to a more deserving guy than McConnell.