Mitch McConnell: I Need More Bland, Centrist Republicans That Will Play The DC Game And By God I'm Going To Make Sure You Conservatives Don't Screw This Up

Mitch McConnell isn't too happy that conservative groups are tying to sway GOP primaries (his own mostly), so he's rallying the establishment troops to make sure the conservative insurgency is beat back.

“There were people who were basically afraid of [conservatives], frankly,” McConnell told the Washington Examiner. “It’s time for people to stand up to this sort of thing.”

McConnell worries that the Senate Conservatives Fund and other insurgent groups are pursuing a confrontational, uncompromising strategy that makes it impossible for conservatives to govern.

“The Senate Conservatives Fund is giving conservatism a bad name. They’re participating in ruining the [Republican] brand,” McConnell said. “What they do is mislead their donors into believing the reason that we can’t get as good an outcome as we’d like to get is not because of a Democratic Senate and a Democratic president, but because Republicans are insufficiently committed to the cause — which is utter nonsense.”

Republicans are "afraid" of conservatives?

I have two reactions to that...

1- Good

and

2- Apparently they aren't afraid enough.

I like a lot of things McConnell does and I don't think primarying him is necessarily the best use of resources. As Dan McLaughlin has pointed out a number of times on Twitter, the primary is more about his record as leader and effectively winning an internal leadership race by general election than it is his record as a Senator. It may also have something to do with his relationship with Jim DeMint who founded the Senate Conservative Fund which is leading the charge against McConnell.

That said, his vision for the ideological makeup of the Senate GOP is purely weak tea Republicanism. You know, the kind we had at various points from 1994 to 2006. If you loved Trent Lott and Bill Frist as Majority Leader, you'll love Mitch McConnell too. Of course odds are that means you're a K-Street lobbyist.

Speaking of which...

A guy named John Feehry who is a top man with a high powered "bi-partisan" lobbying firm (Meaning they get paid by clients to get your money from both parties in Congress. He works the GOP side I guess) says the end of the filibuster for judges and sub-cabinent appointees means we need to elect Republicans that will help....wait for it...big business.

Obama can stack the court in his image and can put anti-business ideologues in places like the Department of Labor, the Environmental Protection Agency, and the Commerce and Agriculture departments. And those ideologues can spend the next three years writing regulations that will govern this country for a generation or more.

And those regulations will cost the business community trillions of dollars in compliance costs.

If you are in the coal industry, or if you are a utility that counts on nuclear power, or if you use corn syrup in your breakfast cereal, or if you are a lender or a homebuilder or operate a hedge fund or do any number of things, the Obama administration’s new power should give you pause.

Now, I agree that stopping Obama's regulatory onslaught is essential but as a party we need to frame these issues in a way that shows how it will hurt actual voters, not existing or potential lobbying clients.

Of course Feehry's partners on the Democratic side of his firm will bring in plenty of clients to lobby the Obama administration for exemptions, so it all comes out in the wash.

This also points to something that bothers mean about guys like McConnell. They keep attacking conservative opponents as simply in it for the money they can get out of dupes. Apparently people like Feehry, who I'm sure Mitch is more than ok with from a political temperament position, are simply doing what they did as volunteer work.

No boys and girls, the idea of money in politics wasn't invented by Heritage Action or the Conservative Senate Fund. Sorry to have to break that to you.

As for McConnell's anger, while he wanted to "punch the Senate Conservative Fund in the nose", he is always silent when someone like Bob Corker goes off and forms a "gang" to screw over the rest of the GOP (notice no Democrats screwed Reid by selling out limiting the filibuster) or Susan Collins and Lisa Murkowski who voted with the Democrats on the judicial nomination.

Let's see if McConnell retaliates against Reid and the Democrats the way he wants to fight back against conservatives. That the retaliation didn't being immediately makes me think it's not coming. Time will tell.

Remember before McConnell's sense of self-preservation kicked in and he became Rand Paul's best buddy, McConnell orchestrated the ouster of longtime Kentucky Senator Jim Bunning and set up his pal Trey Grayson to take the seat. So what happened to Grayson after Paul beat him? He went on to become the Director of The Institute of Politics at Harvard's Kennedy School of Government. Yeah, I'm sure they hire stalwart conservatives there all the time. All the time.

Liberalism is on the run so naturally the GOP's instinct is to circle the wagons and make sure they offer as bland an alternative as possible. I'm not saying we should nominate every nut job who comes along any more than we should trust that career hacks are always going to win. There's got to be thought put into candidate selection to ensure they are a match for the state they are running in. "Electabliltiy" is a threshold hold qualification. It can't be the sole reason for running someone.

Jim DeMint used to say he'd rather have 30 pure conservatives in the Senate than a majority of centrists. The McConnell and Feehry's of the world sound as if they rather have 51 moderates than 60 conservatives. There has to be a few options between the two.

If you look at where the Senate Conservative Fund is actively engaged, they aren't going after every sitting Republican Senator. They are going after two (McConnell and Thad "Big Spender" Cochran). They are also playing in two primaries where they are endorsing candidates other than The Chosen One's.

Some call that outrageous, I call it rather specific targeting. Hell, I wish they'd go after more. I'm looking at you Lamar!

Moderates used to say if you want to change the party you shouldn't sit out elections or vote third party, you should run in a primary. Now that people are they are saying stop running primaries.

It's almost as if the GOP is only interested in conservatives for money, volunteer support and votes. Almost.

posted by DrewM. at 10:36 AM

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