Does this represent anything serious, or is it just a warning shot?
Brent Bozell is at best a useful idiot to the conservative cause, so I’m inclined to read this as just another conservative grift to stoke their base into forking over more cash. But McConnell is up for re-election in 2014, and recall that Rand Paul’s primary opponent in 2010 (for the open Senate seat held by retiring Senator Jim Bunning) was Trey Grayson, the Kentucky Sec’y of State who was heavily backed by McConnell and others in the GOP leadership. Paul beat him by over 20 points; is the Tea Party looking to go 2-2 in KY?
Whatever the intent, the effect is more likely to be in his favor - this attack, coming from the right, helps him look like a bit like a reasonable moderate.
If the Tea Party has the clout in Kentucky, he could be facing a tough primary. I hope he loses, the more nut bags the GOP has in office, the better. I wouldn’t see Kentucky electing a Democrat for that spot, but if the Tea Party nominates a witch maybe they will.
Okay, enough clout. Rand had broader appeal than the typical Tea Party candidate, mainly from his father’s popularity. But the Tea Party has scored some wins in the primaries with total clowns, so it’s certainly possible McConnell will be out.
The fact that the man who said his number-one priority as a legislator was to make Barack Obama a one-term president is now deemed insufficiently conservative for the Republican party fills me with a perverse sense of delight and horror at the same time.
I’d say it’d be so stupid as to be inconceivable that the Tea Party would try and primary him, but I’ve said that so many times in the last four years (Richard Lugar! Orrin Hatch!) that I guess I’ll keep my mouth shut.
Rand Paul’s primary win in 2010 required an alignment of the planets that we’re unlikely to see again. It took a combination of the Tea Party at its peak, the Ron Paul machine, the relatively charismatic Rand, and an ideal opponent in Trey Grayson, a perfectly reasonable guy in a year when Republicans considered that a downside.
McConnell exists on a different plane from the rest of the Kentucky GOP. No matter what troubles he may be having, nobody has the clout to seriously challenge him in the primary and nobody is dumb enough to try. (Come at the king, you best not miss, and all that.)
The general is another story. It’s still a longshot, but the Dems have a bit of a bench available now that they haven’t in recent years, and overall the Kentucky Dems have their thumbs pulled somewhat more out of their asses than the GOP.
The Ashley Judd thing is mostly speculation right now, but it’s not implausible; she does have a degree in public policy from Harvard. The problem is that she is HATED in coal country due to some remarks she made a while back critical of the coal companies.
To state the obvious as well, Rand Paul won a primary for an open seat. That’s pretty different then primarying an incumbent, nvm an incumbent that’s in the partys leadership.
If he was conservative enough he would have suceeded with his goal.
The best part is that if they succeed they will have replaced a high ranking Senate leader with a nobody nothing in a body where seniority is power and power is money for your state.
