# Trouble brewing for Mitch McConnell? **URL:** \ **Category:** Politics & Elections\ **Created:** [January 9, 2013, 8:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/trouble-brewing-for-mitch-mcconnell/646667 "2013-01-09T20:25:09Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![CJJ](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/ecc23a/32.png) [@CJJ](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/CJJ)\ **Post date:** [January 9, 2013, 8:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/trouble-brewing-for-mitch-mcconnell/646667/1 "2013-01-09T20:25:09Z")
Does [this](http://www.politico.com/story/2013/01/conservatives-run-ads-v-mcconnell-85938.html) represent anything serious, or is it just a warning shot? > [@](#): > > A conservative advocacy group is targeting Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell with a series of online ads in his home state for helping to negotiate the fiscal cliff deal. > > “It’s a statement we’re making and I suspect there will be more statements that are going to be coming out,” said Brent Bozell, president of ForAmerica, which is pushing the ads. “It is a statement to make it emphatically clear that what the minority leader did was 100 percent unacceptable. Conservatives are going to hold him responsible for this.” > The ads read, “Mitch McConnell: Whose side are you on?” with the image of a morose McConnell wedged between pictures of a smiling Vice President Joe Biden and smirking President Barack Obama. 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? ---
**Author:** ![ElvisL1ves](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/5daacb/32.png) [@ElvisL1ves](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ElvisL1ves)\ **Post date:** [January 9, 2013, 10:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/trouble-brewing-for-mitch-mcconnell/646667/2 "2013-01-09T22:07:57Z")
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. ---
**Author:** ![TriPolar](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/tripolar/32/3008_2.png) [@TriPolar](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TriPolar)\ **Post date:** [January 9, 2013, 10:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/trouble-brewing-for-mitch-mcconnell/646667/3 "2013-01-09T22:17:02Z")
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. ---
**Author:** ![BobLibDem](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/boblibdem/32/3149_2.png) [@BobLibDem](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BobLibDem)\ **Post date:** [January 10, 2013, 2:55am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/trouble-brewing-for-mitch-mcconnell/646667/4 "2013-01-10T02:55:53Z")
I’d like to see Ashley Judd beat either McConnell or a Teabag alternative. Don’t count on it, those hillbillies elected Jim Bunning. ---
**Author:** ![EMCEE\_98](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/b5ac83/32.png) [@EMCEE\_98](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/EMCEE_98)\ **Post date:** [January 10, 2013, 3:01am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/trouble-brewing-for-mitch-mcconnell/646667/5 "2013-01-10T03:01:26Z")
Awww, he’s just a harmless ol’ turtle. ---
**Author:** ![dropzone](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dropzone/32/7515_2.png) [@dropzone](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/dropzone)\ **Post date:** [January 10, 2013, 4:02am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/trouble-brewing-for-mitch-mcconnell/646667/6 "2013-01-10T04:02:31Z")
> [@BobLibDem](#): > > I’d like to see Ashley Judd beat either McConnell or a Teabag alternative. (making sure we’re talking about the same Ashley Judd) I might not like a beating, but a little light spanking might be fun, as long as I can reciprocate. 😉 ---
**Author:** ![Marley23](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/45deac/32.png) [@Marley23](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Marley23)\ **Post date:** [January 10, 2013, 4:41am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/trouble-brewing-for-mitch-mcconnell/646667/7 "2013-01-10T04:41:42Z")
> [@TriPolar](#): > > If the Tea Party has the clout in Kentucky, he could be facing a tough primary. If the Tea Party didn’t have clout in Kentucky, Rand Paul wouldn’t be a Senator. ---
**Author:** ![TriPolar](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/tripolar/32/3008_2.png) [@TriPolar](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TriPolar)\ **Post date:** [January 10, 2013, 5:00am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/trouble-brewing-for-mitch-mcconnell/646667/8 "2013-01-10T05:00:07Z")
> [@Marley23](#): > > If the Tea Party didn’t have clout in Kentucky, Rand Paul wouldn’t be a Senator. 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. ---
**Author:** ![BrainGlutton](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/82dd89/32.png) [@BrainGlutton](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BrainGlutton)\ **Post date:** [January 10, 2013, 6:08am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/trouble-brewing-for-mitch-mcconnell/646667/9 "2013-01-10T06:08:01Z")
> [@](#): > > A conservative advocacy group is targeting Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell . . . Sound like they want to replace a turtle with a dinosaur. ---
**Author:** ![elucidator](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/8edcca/32.png) [@elucidator](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/elucidator)\ **Post date:** [January 10, 2013, 6:49am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/trouble-brewing-for-mitch-mcconnell/646667/10 "2013-01-10T06:49:26Z")
Reptile dysfunction. ---
**Author:** ![Smapti](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/smapti/32/17938_2.png) [@Smapti](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Smapti)\ **Post date:** [January 10, 2013, 8:47am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/trouble-brewing-for-mitch-mcconnell/646667/11 "2013-01-10T08:47:25Z")
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. ---
**Author:** ![Critical1](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/3e96dc/32.png) [@Critical1](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Critical1)\ **Post date:** [January 10, 2013, 9:06am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/trouble-brewing-for-mitch-mcconnell/646667/12 "2013-01-10T09:06:21Z")
> [@Smapti](#): > > 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. QFFT ---
**Author:** ![ElvisL1ves](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/5daacb/32.png) [@ElvisL1ves](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ElvisL1ves)\ **Post date:** [January 11, 2013, 12:41am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/trouble-brewing-for-mitch-mcconnell/646667/13 "2013-01-11T00:41:24Z")
Ashley Judd yes oh please oh please this has to happen yes Senator Ashley Judd pleasepleaseplease … ---
**Author:** ![Evil\_Captor](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/f17d59/32.png) [@Evil\_Captor](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Evil_Captor)\ **Post date:** [January 11, 2013, 1:59am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/trouble-brewing-for-mitch-mcconnell/646667/14 "2013-01-11T01:59:18Z")
Well trouble could not come to a more deserving guy … ---
**Author:** ![Simplicio](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/c37758/32.png) [@Simplicio](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Simplicio)\ **Post date:** [January 11, 2013, 2:15am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/trouble-brewing-for-mitch-mcconnell/646667/15 "2013-01-11T02:15:26Z")
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. ---
**Author:** ![DoctorJ](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/doctorj/32/2904_2.png) [@DoctorJ](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DoctorJ)\ **Post date:** [January 11, 2013, 5:17am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/trouble-brewing-for-mitch-mcconnell/646667/16 "2013-01-11T05:17:27Z")
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. ---
**Author:** ![Simplicio](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/c37758/32.png) [@Simplicio](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Simplicio)\ **Post date:** [January 11, 2013, 10:19am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/trouble-brewing-for-mitch-mcconnell/646667/17 "2013-01-11T10:19:09Z")
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. ---
**Author:** ![Death\_of\_Rats](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/a6a055/32.png) [@Death\_of\_Rats](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Death_of_Rats)\ **Post date:** [January 11, 2013, 2:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/trouble-brewing-for-mitch-mcconnell/646667/18 "2013-01-11T14:51:30Z")
> [@Smapti](#): > > 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. 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. ---
**Author:** ![Kolak\_of\_Twilo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kolak_of_twilo/32/73_2.png) [@Kolak\_of\_Twilo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kolak_of_Twilo)\ **Post date:** [January 13, 2013, 7:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/trouble-brewing-for-mitch-mcconnell/646667/19 "2013-01-13T19:41:50Z")
> [@ElvisL1ves](#): > > 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. I have to admit your reasoning here puzzles me. How would being seen as a moderate help a Republican? Particularly in Kentucky, of all places. ---
**Author:** ![elucidator](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/8edcca/32.png) [@elucidator](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/elucidator)\ **Post date:** [January 13, 2013, 7:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/trouble-brewing-for-mitch-mcconnell/646667/20 "2013-01-13T19:54:15Z")
His starry-eyed idealism is clouding his judgement. Being a moderate in these days and times _should_ help. Sadly, no. [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/trouble-brewing-for-mitch-mcconnell/646667.md?page=2)