McConnell’s Bad Week Leaves Mitch Looking More and More Ditched

BRENDAN SMIALOWSKI/AFP/Getty Images( (cropped)

BRENDAN SMIALOWSKI/AFP/Getty Images( (cropped)

It wasn’t a great week for Mitch McConnell. It didn’t help that he capped it off by over compensating, waving a rifle around at CPAC. The Grimes campaign collected some of Mitch’s headlines over the past week, and it’s not pretty. The sources range from from Breitbart to Huffington Post to the AP, so it’s not a partisan thing. Rather, everyone agrees, from the right, left and middle, that Mitch McConnell is in trouble:

McConnell Looks “More Vulnerable” Now Than the Week Before, “Tea Party Still Winning GOP Debate.” “Bottom line: Lindsey Graham, Mitch McConnell, Pat Roberts, and Thad Cochran look MORE vulnerable today than they did last week.” [NBC News, 3/7/14]
HEADLINE: McConnell Gets Lukewarm CPAC Reception. [The Hill, 3/6/14]
HEADLINE: CPAC Gives Cold Shoulder to Mitch McConnell. [Breitbart, 3/6/14]
McConnell Campaign Manager Says McConnell Will “Probably Not” Win Back Conservatives. “‘Rand has been very careful not to criticize Bevin directly, and he won’t,’ said Benton. ‘Rand will be able to go to those [more conservative] voters and make the case. Will he win back all of them? Probably not, but he’ll get a lot of them for Mitch.'” [Huffington Post, 3/6/14]
Oklahoma Sen. Candidate: McConnell “Should Resign Immediately For the Sake of Our Country’s Future, And For the Good of the Republican Party.” [AP, 3/5/14]
ABC/Washington Post Poll: “Anti-Incumbent Sentiment Has Reached 25-Year High.”
[ABC News, 3/4/14]
NYT on McConnell’s Seat: “Could Flip to Democratic.” [New York Times, 3/2/14]

The Grimes campaign observed dryly that it’s more than a bad week, it’s actually been a bad year for McConnell, “It’s only one week into March, and 2014 has already been terrible for Mitch McConnell. Our campaign noted his year was off to a rocky start just 72 hours into the New Year – who knew that January 3rd would be his campaign’s highpoint.”

Indeed. Mitch McConnell was so busy getting rich off of the healthcare industry, among others, that he hadn’t been paying attention to his Senate seat. Who can blame him for taking it for granted, after all, he’s the longest serving U.S. Senator in Kentucky history– he’s had his seat since 1985. Suffice it to say, McConnell hasn’t exactly felt compelled to court the folks in his state. The relationship as it is works just fine for him, thanks.

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But he’s paying attention now, with Matt Bevin breathing down his neck from the right and Alison Grimes pushing him from the sane middle to come up with a jobs plan after 30 years. It’s tough to be Mitch McConnell, and that’s why he just made a fool of himself pandering to the base at CPAC, who don’t trust him because they think he works with Obama too much.

In the meantime, McConnell still doesn’t have a jobs plan and is against raising the minimum wage, against veterans benefits, and against extending emergency unemployment benefits — but he’s all for giving himself a raise. It’s no wonder the folks at home are beginning to question McConnell’s lack of reciprocity.

Will Mitch McConnell’s very bad year continue? No one expected him to be in this precarious position, but here he is, thanks in part to a strong Democratic candidate in Alison Grimes and a Tea Party challenger that won’t sit down and shut up for the GOP. And instead of really addressing his plight by coming up with some policies to champion, McConnell seems content to wave a rifle around.


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