McConnell wants credit for economic turnaround

Over the weekend, for example, the Kentucky Republican insisted a “regulatory onslaught” was “the principal reason” the economic recovery isn’t stronger. It prompted Danny Vinik to explain, in persuasive detail, “McConnell is betraying his ignorance on economic issues.”

Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) probably has a variety of strengths as a politician. A familiarity with the basics of economic policy isn’t one of them.

Three days later, McConnell shifted gears. As of this morning, the GOP leader is not only impressed with the improved economic conditions, he also wants credit for them (via Sam Stein).

“After so many years of sluggish growth, we’re finally starting to see some economic data that can provide a glimmer of hope; the uptick appears to coincide with the biggest political change of the Obama Administration’s long tenure in Washington: the expectation of a new Republican Congress. So this is precisely the right time to advance a positive, pro-growth agenda.”

This would be amusing if it weren’t so sad.

We just saw an election cycle in which Mitch McConnell argued every day that President Obama is destroying the economy. In fact, his indictment was specific: the combination of “Obamacare,” higher taxes, Dodd-Frank, and federal regulations were a “wet blanket,” holding the country back.

All the while, even as McConnell whined, economic conditions just kept getting better and U.S. job growth reached a 15-year high last year. Which apparently led to an amazing rhetorical detour: never mind all that stuff McConnell said in 2014; in 2015 he wants credit for the recovery’s unexpected strength.

It’s worth emphasizing that McConnell took his time to come up with this rhetorical trick. Two days before Christmas, Americans learned that GDP growth in the third quarter of 2014 reached an 11-year high. And what did the Republican Senate leader have to say about it at the time? Literally nothing.

In fact, when the economic data was released, Republicans – from McConnell to Speaker Boehner to the RNC – apparently couldn’t think of anything to say at all. Two weeks later, however, Team McConnell wants acclaim for the growth he was previously inclined to ignore.

In case this isn’t obvious, that GDP report that was so impressive referred to economic growth in July, August, and September of last year – before anyone could say with confidence what would happen in November’s elections. McConnell is now effectively arguing that businesses and other employers were so excited – over the summer – by the mere possibility of a Republican Senate that economic growth soared. It wasn’t the result of Republican policies, so much as the broad anticipation of McConnell & Co. passing bills for President Obama to veto.

What’s worse: the notion of McConnell actually believing this nonsense or McConnell expecting Americans to buy it?

McConnell digs a hole on Social Security, falls in

Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.), in the midst of the toughest race of his career, still isn’t quite sure how he wants to present himself to voters. On the one hand, the longtime Republican senator is proud to be the nation’s top obstructionist, helping create the most dysfunctional Congress in modern history. On the other hand, McConnell wants the public to see him as the consummate dealmaker.

To help prove the latter point, the GOP incumbent cited an interesting example last week.

Though he hasn’t mentioned it much on the campaign trail over the past year, McConnell specifically touted his effort to push President George W. Bush’s plans to reform Social Security in 2005, which would have set up private accounts for retirees. 

“After Bush was re-elected in 2004 he wanted us to try to fix Social Security,” said McConnell. “I spent a year trying to get any Democrat in the Senate – even those most reasonable Democrat of all, Joe Lieberman – to help us.”

We now know, of course, that Democrats weren’t interested in privatizing Social Security. Neither was the American mainstream, which hated the Bush/Cheney idea. But the fact that McConnell brought this up, unprompted, was a clumsy error from a senator who’s usually more disciplined.

McConnell Reeling After 2 Biggest Newspapers In Kentucky Endorse Alison Lundergan Grimes

In strong editorials, the two largest newspapers in Kentucky have both endorsed Democrat Alison Lundergan Grimes over Sen. Mitch McConnell in the Kentucky Senate election.

The Lexington Herald-Leader’s editorial board wrote,

McConnell does have power. He commands a perpetual-motion money machine; dollars flow in, favors flow out.

The problem is how McConnell uses his power. He has repeatedly hurt the country to advance his political strategy.

McConnell has sabotaged jobs and transportation bills, even as Kentucky’s unemployment exceeds the nation’s and an Interstate 75 bridge crumbles over the Ohio River. He blocked tax credits for companies that move jobs back to this country while preserving breaks for those that move jobs overseas. He opposed extending unemployment benefits, while bemoaning the “jobless” recovery. He brags about resolving crises that he helped create.

The Senate may never recover from the bitter paralysis McConnell has inflicted through record filibusters that allow his minority to rule by obstruction.

….

Kentuckians can’t do much to stop a Supreme Court majority that’s enabling the corrosion of our democracy by unlimited, secret contributions, in court cases bearing McConnell’s stamp.

Mitch McConnell: It’s not “particularly enlightening” talking to constituents, especially “factory workers”

Republican Senate minority leader Mitch McConnell doesn’t find it “particularly enlightening” meeting with constituents.

And McConnell has a particular beef about meeting with factory workers.

Arrogant Mitch McConnell Dismisses Alison Lundergan Grimes and Acts Like He Has Already Won

Sen. Mitch McConnell is ignoring reality and acting like Republicans have already won the Senate, and he’s the Majority Leader. The truth is McConnell could lose his seat, and Democrats have an opportunity to keep the Senate.

According to The Hill,

Senate Republican Leader Mitch McConnell (Ky.) wants to get all must-pass legislation completed in the lame-duck session, so Senate Republicans would have a clean slate at the start of 2015, if they control the upper chamber. 

Senate GOP aides say that’s the message from the leader, who could face opposition from conservative lawmakers who want to block any non-emergency measures in the window between Election Day and the start of the new Congress in January.

“We keep hearing from the leadership we’re going to clear the decks in the lame duck,” said a senior GOP aide.

McConnell is enraging members of his party by wanting to pass a bill to fund the government through September 2015, and extend some tax breaks that Republicans were hoping to use as ransom against Obama.

Sen. McConnell is planning his agenda for when he is running the show in spite of the reality that he is in a close fight for his seat. The message to Democrats is that Mitch McConnell thinks that the election is over. The Kentucky Republican is acting as he has already defeated his Democratic opponent, Alison Lundergan Grimes.

McConnell is measuring the drapes, which is why Democrats need to wake up. There are still fifteen days before the election. Mitch McConnell is living in his fantasy land., but Democrats can deliver a dose of cold, hard reality by mobilizing for Alison Lundergan Grimes and Democratic Senate candidates everywhere.

Your vote is the best way to rain on Mitch McConnell’s premature victory parade.

Big Trouble for Mitch McConnell: Campaign Manager Taken Down in Bribery Scandal!

Just a few days ago, a scandal broke regarding Ron Paul’s bribery of a Bachmann campaign supporter to jump ship to his campaign in 2012. In that report, then Paul campaign staffer Jesse Benton was mentioned.

At the time, Benton was a member of Paul’s campaign who denied that there had been any sort of pay off to convince State Senator Kent Sorenson to support Paul. The report noted Benton was the Manager of Mitch McTurtle’s 2014 reelection campaign.

As of today, that’s no longer the case.

After submitting a resignation letter in the face of the growing scandal, Jesse Benton has ducked out of McConnell’s 2014 campaign.

Benton’s criminal-like behavior doesn’t begin there and it doesn’t end there. It was Benton who buried the thuggery of Rand Paul’s supporters, when one supporter stomped on the head of a MoveOn activist at a campaign event. He told his far right-wing buddies that he was “holding his nose” to work with McConnell, because it would help Rand Paul in 2016 (although he would admit to regretting those remarks later).

And now, he’ s being questioned for his role in “convincing” Kent Sorenson to jump ship to Paul’s campaign with a $73,000 bribe.

Benton is not a small-time figure; he’s married to Ron Paul’s granddaughter, was the spokesman for Rand Paul’s 2010 Senate campaign, and was the National Director of Ron Paul 2012; as Crooks and Liars put it, he’s essentially the “cultural ambassador of the Paul Family.” That this dragnet is entangling him shouldn’t surprise anyone.

McTurtle reportedly knew that there were bribery allegation a year ago against Benton; he chose to over look them, and now it’s looks like the net that caught Sorenson is going to entangle him as well. Alison Grimes asked, “What did Mitch know and when did he know it?” I think this is a question we all need to be asking right now.

McConnell Explains How He'd Force A Shutdown War With Obama

Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY) explained his plan to use a government shutdown as a bargaining chip against President Barack Obama to a room full of wealthy conservatives two months ago, according to audio obtained by The Nation magazine.

"So in the House and Senate, we own the budget. So what does that mean? That means that we can pass the spending bill. And I assure you that in the spending bill, we will be pushing back against this bureaucracy by doing what's called placing riders in the bill. No money can be spent to do this or to do that. We're going to go after them on health care, on financial services, on the Environmental Protection Agency, across the board. ... All across the federal government, we're going to go after it," McConnell said at a private summit hosted by the Koch Brothers.

The strategy mirrors what House Republicans did last year: they passed on a "rider" to defund Obamacare in a must-pass spending bill, and it led to the 16-day partial shutdown. But the bill died in the Democratic-led Senate, and Republicans eventually reopened the government and funded Obamacare.

McConnell is suggesting that if Republicans control the Senate, they'll have a stronger negotiating hand to force Obama to swallow some concessions.

The Kentucky Republican stood by his comments on Wednesday.

"In contrast to Alison Lundergan Grimes' failure to defend Kentucky coal from the EPA behind closed doors with Obama donors, Senator McConnell fights for Kentucky wherever he goes. Earlier this summer Grimes failed to utter a word of support after promising Kentuckians she would defend Kentucky coal at a Harry Reid fundraiser and lord knows what she said to Tom Steyer and anti-coal billionaires when she attended their conference in Chicago," said Allison Moore, a spokeswoman for McConnell's reelection campaign.

Elizabeth Warren Declares WAR on Mitch McConnell for Killing Her Student Loan Bill!

Senator Mitch McConnell has made a lot of enemies, but on Wednesday he may have finally pissed off the wrong person. After McConnell and his lackeys filibustered her student loan reform bill, Senator Elizabeth Warren is going to make sure McConnell regrets it.

Senator Warren’s bill would have allowed college students to refinance their student loans to a much lower rate and thus reducing some of the growing financial burden an education has become. To make up for the lost income from the reduced interest rates, the bill also proposed an increase on the tax rate of millionaires. Senate Republicans, always making sure to keep the millionaires comfortable, filibustered the bill. While the majority of the Senate was on Warren’s side and agreed that we need to help our struggling students, there wasn’t enough of a majority to break McConnell’s filibuster and the bill floundered.

But Warren is determined to make McConnell pay for his obstruction. Sounding the battle cry and marching for McConnell’s home turf, Warren is throwing her infamous political fervor in with McConnell’s opponent, Alisson Lundergan Grimes.

Well, accountability is exactly the right word. I plan on fighting back on this, and I hope that everybody else does too. One way, I’m going to start fighting back is I’m going to go down to Kentucky and I’m going to campaign for Alison Lundergan Grimes, . She’s tough. She’s feisty. She endorsed the student loan bill, said she wanted to bring down interest rates for Kentuckians, and so my view is, I’m going to get out there and try to make this happen for her. 

I hope lots of people give her money at alisonforkentucky.com. I hope people will support her, because it’s really a way to say Alison is a candidate who’s there for all of us. For trying to make sure that everybody gets a fighting chance. It’s one way to deal with this. I gotta tell you, given what Mitch McConnell’s has been doing in the United States Senate. The way it’s just block, block, block, no, no, no. We get Alison Lundergan Grimes, in there and I feel like she could almost single-handedly get rid of some of the gridlock here in Washington.

It’s good to see a Democrat willing to really go after some of these corrupt GOPers. We need more Dems like Warren to fight for the middle class and poor and take up arms against the Republicans that seem to want to destroy it.

GOP To Block Bill That Would Help 40 Million People Because It Raises Taxes on Millionaires

Senate Republicans are signaling that they are going to block Elizabeth Warren’s bill to help 40 million students refinance their loans, because it would raise taxes on millionaires.

Sen Warren’s bill would allow students to refinance their old debt at today’s lower interest rates. In many cases, Warren’s bill would allow those who are burdened by student loan debt to slice their interest rate from 6% or 7% to 3.86%. Her legislation would help 40 million borrowers, and would be paid for by phasing in a new tax on millionaires in 2015.

President Obama gave the bill his full support today.

The president said:

I’ve taken action on my own to offer millions of students the opportunity to cap their monthly student loan payments to 10% of their income. But Congress needs to do its part. The good news is that Senate Democrats are working on a bill that would help more young people save money. Just like you can refinance your mortgage at a lower interest rate, this bill would let you refinance your student loans. And we’d pay for it by closing loopholes that allow some millionaires to pay a lower tax rate than the middle class. 

That’s the choice that your representatives in Congress will make in the coming weeks – protect young people from crushing debt, or protect tax breaks for millionaires. And while Congress decides what it’s going to do, I will keep doing whatever I can without Congress to help responsible young people pay off their loans – including new action I will take this week.

Although this bill has 35 Senate co-sponsors, Republican Minority Leader Mitch McConnell is signalling that he is going to block the legislation from passing. McConnell said, “This bill doesn’t make college more affordable, reduce the amount of money students will have to borrow, or do anything about the lack of jobs grads face in the Obama economy.”

The truth is that McConnell is going to obstruct a piece of legislation that would help 40 millions Americans save money and get out of debt, because he refuses raise taxes on a few thousand of the wealthiest Americans.

Forty million people are going to continue to be crushed by crippling student loan debt because Republicans refuse to raise taxes on millionaires. This is what Citizens United money is able to buy the conservative billionaires. Warren’s bill is a common sense proposal that would help tens of millions of people, but it will be obstructed because it would cost some millionaires their pocket change.

People are suffering because the wealthiest Americans are running the Republican Party. The likely fate of Warren’s bill is another example of why the nation must get the big donors out of our campaign finance system.

Quote of the Day

"Even critics are acknowledging that the ACA is bringing health care to those who desperately need it. In short, it's working. ...In fact, over 421,000 Kentuckians have signed up for health insurance through 'kynect'—about 75 percent of whom didn't previously have insurance and about 52 percent of whom were under age 35. That's almost 1 in 10 Kentuckians. Those numbers—and the testimony of the people behind them—contradict the mindless nattering of partisan-minded critics who need to leave their Washington D.C. echo chambers and talk to the people they represent. Because if each of the over 421,000 people who signed up via 'kynect' could grab 10 minutes of Sen. McConnell's time to explain what health care coverage means for their families, and if the Senator had the endurance to listen 24/7, it would take eight years to hear from each enrollee. That's longer than the entire new Senate term he says he deserves."

—Democratic Kentucky Governor Steve Beshear.

McConnell sees distinction between ACA, ACA exchanges

Senate hopefuls Michelle Nunn (D-Ga.) and Alison Lundergan Grimes (D-Ky.) have taken some heat this week, some of it deserved, for less-than-clear answers on the Affordable Care Act. Both are broadly supportive of reform and have endorsed key provisions, but both have been reluctant to say to how they would have voted if they’d been in the Senate when “Obamacare” was up for a vote.

 

The question obviously won’t go away and they’ll need clear answers, sooner rather than later.

 

But while scrutiny like this is fair, it’s important that campaign watchers not miss the other side of the coin: some Dems may be hedging on some health care questions, but in a variety of races, the Republican line is a complete mess.

Kentucky Sen. Mitch McConnell says he would try to repeal the Affordable Care Act if he’s elected Senate majority leader.

 

But the veteran senator won’t say what would happen to the 421,000 Kentuckians who have health insurance through the state’s health care exchange.

 

McConnell told reporters Friday that the fate of the state exchange is unconnected to the federal health care law. Yet the exchange would not exist, if not for the law that created it.

This AP report doesn’t include any exact quotes, and I’m reluctant to draw sweeping conclusions from paraphrases. I’ll be interested in McConnell’s exact words.

 

But if the AP’s rough account is accurate, the Senate Minority Leader’s position is plainly incoherent. It’s simply not possible to separate the law’s exchange marketplaces from the law itself. Like it or not, one is a key part of the other. The federal law was responsible for creating and funding the existence of the state exchange. When consumers – in Kentucky and elsewhere – use these marketplaces to sign up for private coverage, many are able to afford the insurance thanks to subsidies made possible by the federal law Republicans have been desperate to obliterate.

 

Or put another way, when McConnell says he wants to destroy the entirety of the Affordable Care Act, “root and branch,” he necessarily means eliminating the marketplaces where insurers compete for consumers’ business – it’s one of the “branches.”

 

So why suggest otherwise?

 

Again, his exact words matter, but if the AP’s right, McConnell probably wants to draw a distinction between Obamacare and a key feature of Obamacare because most of his constituents probably like these exchange marketplaces, and this election year, he doesn’t want to be on the wrong side of Kentucky’s mainstream.

 

In other words, the political winds have changed direction so dramatically that even McConnell realizes that shouting “Repeal!” over and over again is no longer a sustainable posture, even in – especially in – a red state like Kentucky, which has had great success in implementing the law.

 

What’s more, this isn’t just about McConnell. If the media wants to press Democrats like Nunn and Lundergan Grimes about hypothetical votes four years ago, it’s certainly a legitimate area of inquiry. But at the same time, Republicans like Scott Brown in New Hampshire, Terri Lynn Land in Michigan, Tom Cotton in Arkansas, and Thom Tillis in North Carolina also refuse to answer equally legitimate questions about basic parts of the health care debate. And when they try to respond, many end up repeating gibberish.

 

Some of these candidates have a decent excuse: they’re running their first Senate campaign and may simply be out of their depth. But if so, what’s Mitch McConnell’s excuse?

McConnell Steps in It: ‘It’s Not My Job’ to Bring Jobs to Kentucky

Last month, Mitch McConnell (R-Galapagos) said of the Tea Party: “I think we are going to crush them everywhere. I don’t think they are going to have a single nominee anywhere in the country.” This month, McConnell may well have torpedoed his chances of that by saying that bringing jobs to Kentucky “is not my job. It is the primary responsibility of the state Commerce Cabinet.” McConnell made those remarks to the Beattyville Enterprise, and he’s regretted them ever since:

It seems my message got lost in translation, and I was surprised to see a headline about my visit that sent the exact opposite message to the one I was trying to convey. In my travels across the Commonwealth, I hear too often how government is blocking job creation. It’s up to all of us — at the federal, state, and local levels — to fix that.

It’s understandable, since translating turtle to English isn’t easy, but his remarks were pretty clear and straight forward, and “it’s not my job” is not the same thing as “it’s up to all of us.” It makes it sound like the sort of “us” that can be expected from people with authority –i.e., the “us” and “we” that means “you, not me.” The McConnell’s Democratic opponent, Alison Grimes, fired back at McConnell, according to the Houston Chronicle:

Democratic candidate Alison Lundergan Grimes wasted no time attacking McConnell for his comments to the newspaper and used the opportunity to tout her jobs plan that would, among other things, raise the minimum wage and invest in infrastructure. Grimes added that her top priorities as U.S. Senator would be “creating good-paying jobs for Kentuckians and growing our middle class.” “It is reprehensible that Mitch McConnell believes that it is not his job to help Kentucky families who are struggling to make ends meet,” Grimes said in a statement provided by her campaign. “This latest shock from Senator McConnell reinforces the fact that the only job he cares about is his own.”

Here’s How McConnell Plans To Personally Profit From The Ruin Of Democracy

McConnell was one of many who filed a “friend-of-the-court brief” in the recent McCutcheon v. FEC, arguing that the limitations on the amount of cash contributions a person can give to campaigns in an election cycle was an “unconstitutional restriction of free speech.”

But apparently Mitch McConnell doesn’t care about the rest of America’s voice when they want action on gun control, immigration, unemployment insurance, etc.

So it’s no surprise that Mitch McConnell has been a long an advocate of removing the laws that puts limits on individual donations, the reason being that he will most likely benefit handsomely from the ruling, just in time for a very contested Senate race against Alison Lundergan Grimes. The ruling lets someone give to an unlimited number of candidates and committees, which could be put in place to help the Minority Leader become the Majority Leader in November.

The ruling is expected to help eliminate competition among candidates of the same party, the Republican Party, in primaries for maximum contributions from donors, and then eliminate his more popular Democratic opponent, Alison Lundergan Grimes.

During the 2012 election cycle, in which McConnell did not run, all donors were limited to strictly giving only $123,000, with $48,600 going to individual candidates and $74,600 to committees and parties. Many are now arguing that Wednesday’s ruling will open the floodgates to money poisoning the election cycle, upping the limit from $123,000 to potentially $3.5 million.

With $281,301 in the bank from all sorts of lobbyists, McConnell has topped the list this election season with most contributions of any politician in Congress, followed closely by John Boehner who caps off (so far) with $278,380. The organization Open Secrets compiles data with the donations from federally registered lobbyists including the companies and different organization who spend a certain amount of money lobbying Congress. According to the law, when they do so, they’re required to register with the federal government.

McConnell has also received more money than any other lawmaker since 2013.

And according to the information provided by Open Secrets, McConnell is the Number 1 campaign recipient from overall (2013-2014 election cycle):

1. Agriculture services

2. Air transportation

3. Auto dealers and manufacturers

4. Building materials

5. Business associations

6. Coal mining

7. Commercial banks

8. Commercial TV and radio stations

9. Insurance,

10. Mortgage bankers and brokers

When McConnell last ran for re-election in 2008, before the Citizens United ruling, he was fourth in contributions from lobbyists. Now, since Citizens United, he tops the list. And the recent decision by the Supreme Court will only further propel him into a world of seemingly endless cash flow.

And not shockingly, just after the ruling, McConnell’s Senate campaign sent out  fundraising appeals attached to an article on the conservative magazine National Review which labeled the Minority Leader “a tireless crusader against laws that would restrict what citizens may do with their property and energy come election time.”

David Donnelly of the Public Campaign Action Fund, summed it up perfectly: “Everyday people, Kentuckians should be concerned that Senator McConnell continues to push the envelope in the courts to allow for unlimited campaign contributions. That’s not just bad policy; it’s extreme and unpopular.”

With destructive and special interest decisions like the Supreme Court’s ruling, Minority Leader Mitch McConnell could be Majority Leader this November.

Paul Ryan and Mitch McConnell Make Republicans Look Ridiculous by Completely Contradicting Each Other

While most Republicans won’t admit it, liberals – and generally most people with common sense – can tell there’s a lot of internal friction currently going on within the Republican party.  It’s been that way since the tea party gained influence and began pushing the Republican party so far right that even conservative icon Ronald Reagan wouldn’t stand a chance at winning an election today.

You’ve had Boehner calling out tea party tactics and even tea party groups openly targeting Republicans who dare work with Democrats on anything.

It’s basically tea party Republicans who consider themselves “real conservatives” (whatever the hell that means) vs. the slightly less radical Republicans who understand that you can’t be the party that opposes everything mainstream while embracing ideas that only appeal to the most extreme conservatives in the country.

Yet tea party Republicans honestly believe that the reason why Republicans have struggled in national election is because they haven’t been conservative enough.  Which makes no sense when you consider that these candidates run in primaries within their own party to be chosen for the general election.  If even Republican voters don’t want these more conservative candidates, why would lesser conservative voters?

Well, two men offered completely contradicting viewpoints this weekend on the current state of the GOP.

Wisconsin Representative Paul Ryan claimed that there’s no internal “civil war” going on, saying, ”I don’t think there’s really this vast civil war in the Republican Party like many in the left like to suggest there is.”

Except, let’s take a look at what Kentucky Senator Mitch McConnell had to say from 24 hours earlier when speaking about tea party Republicans - ”I think we are going to crush them everywhere.  I don’t think they are going to have a single nominee anywhere in the country.”

So, within 24 hours, we have two leading Republicans offering completely different views of the current state of the GOP.

Ryan says there’s no “civil war” going on, just after McConnell professes his belief that incumbent Republicans will “crush” tea party Republican challengers.

And let’s not act like either of these two men are “moderate.”  Liberals generally loathe both.

These are two mainstream Republicans offering completely contradicting viewpoints on the current state of their party.  Which, when you think about it, shows the current state of dysfunction within the Republican party.

Women Prepare Their Revenge for Mitch McConnell Voting Against the Minimum Wage 15 Times

Why do Kentucky women hold Mitch McConnell in such contempt? His favorables with them are a negative 26 percent, and his Democratic opponent Alison Lundergan Grimes leads him with women by 12 points, according to a recent independent Bluegrass Poll. 

Perhaps it’s in the policy. Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY) Voted Against Paycheck Fairness Act twice. He voted against the Lilly Ledbetter Act, calling it a “special interest vote.” McConnell and Senate Republicans blocked a Democratic bill calling for equal pay in the workplace. 

McConnell voted against raising the minimum wage 15 times, when over 250,000 Kentucky women would benefit from an increase in the minimum wage to $10.10 an hour, according to a new report from the National Women’s Law Center. They report that 7 in 10 minimum wage workers are women working long hours to provide for their families in Kentucky. 

Alison Lundergan Grimes responded to the report by vowing that the first thing she would do when elected is voting to increase the minimum wage, “Hardworking women across the Commonwealth rely on the minimum wage to put gas in the car, food on the table and roofs over their children’s heads. Unfortunately, the current minimum wage is simply not enough to make ends meet. Senator McConnell says increasing the minimum wage is the last thing he’d do, even voting over 15 times against giving hardworking Kentuckians a raise. When elected as Kentucky’s first female Senator, it will be the first thing I do.”

McConnell Lashes Out Against Rabid Tea Partiers

Now that he’s in the crosshairs of rabid Tea Partiers who see compromise as a sign of weakness, Mitch McConnell has decided that it’s time to stand up to them. Since the rise of the movement, the Republican Party has embraced them, partly because they can win primaries by appealing to the party base.

But now that he’s facing the threat of being “primaried,” McConnell is finally speaking up, saying in an interview with the Washington Examiner:

The Senate Conservatives Fund is giving conservatism a bad name. They’re… ruining the [Republican] brand. 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.

McConnell, who has nearly 29 years of experience, knows that in Washington, effectiveness requires compromise. In Tea Party candidates’ eyes, this means that he isn’t conservative enough. Mitch McConnell too liberal, though? That’s a hard idea to wrap the mind around.

McConnell told the Examiner that extreme elements are making people afraid of conservatism, and for that reason, “It’s time for people to stand up to this sort of thing.”

McConnell thinks that in the last two election cycles, Republicans lost many winnable races because they ran candidates who appealed to the conservative base but did not have sufficiently wide appeal to win a general election.  Fail to do that and you will fail to win.

McConnell has good reason to worry, he already faces stiff competition in his reelection bid next year from Kentucky Secretary of State Alison Lundergan Grimes.

Grimes has posed a serious challenge since announcing her campaign against McConnell: she’s very popular, and almost immediately began posting polling numbers which showed that the race between the two would likely be very close.

Matt Hoskins, executive director of the SCF and the man who decides who the Tea Party will support, thinks that McConnell is wrong – that the way to win elections is by appealing to the party base. SCF is backing Matt Bevins, who’s challenging McConnell in the Republican primary.

Hoskins said:

Grassroots conservatives are very worried about the direction of the country and they believe urgent action is needed to save it. This is why they’re not happy with politicians who vote with them most of the time. They want people who will actually stand up and fight for them.

Mitch McConnell criticized for taking money from firm tied to health website

U.S. Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell is a vocal critic of President Barack Obama's Affordable Care Act and its glitch-stricken website, HealthCare.gov, repeatedly calling for repeal of the law "root and branch."

"At this point, senators from both parties can agree: HealthCare.gov is a rolling disaster. Every day seems to bring more, newer comic calamity," McConnell, R-Ky., said Oct. 29 in a Senate floor speech. "The only thing the website seems to be good for right now is creating punch lines for late-night comedians."

However, since 2011, McConnell has accepted more than $75,000 in political donations from health care giant UnitedHealth Group, which owns the technology company that helped build and launch HealthCare.gov for a reported $155 million and now is responsible for fixing it.

The donations came from UnitedHealth's political action committee and five of its top executives; they went to McConnell's 2014 re-election campaign and two fundraising committees that he oversees, the Bluegrass Committee and the McConnell-Cornyn Leadership Victory Committee.

UnitedHealth also co-hosted a $1,000-per-person fundraising dinner for McConnell's campaign last December in Washington, D.C. And the company, based in Minnetonka, Minn., retains former McConnell chief of staff Billy Piper as a Washington lobbyist to work on its behalf in Congress on implementation of the Affordable Care Act, Senate records show.

UnitedHealth, which tends to favor incumbent Democrats and Republicans as it gives more than $1 million in political donations during a typical two-year election cycle, has expressed optimism about the health care law.

"UnitedHealth Group strongly supports making high-quality health care accessible and affordable for everyone," it stated in a news release last year.

Josh Holmes, a McConnell aide on loan to the National Republican Senatorial Committee, said Thursday there is no indication that UnitedHealth's donations have weakened McConnell's opposition to the health law.

Two conservative groups, however, said UnitedHealth's support of McConnell is further evidence that his only true ideology is power. They already have criticized McConnell for not fully supporting Sen. Ted Cruz, R-Texas, and others who fight to defund the health care law, which they call Obamacare.

"Mitch McConnell gets money from lots of corporations for many different reasons, but his close ties to this one makes it unique," said Matt Hoskins, executive director of the Senate Conservatives Fund, which has endorsed Louisville businessman Matt Bevin over McConnell in the Republican primary next May.

"This could explain why Mitch McConnell has been so reluctant to oppose funding for the implementation of Obamacare. He and his closest allies apparently have a financial interest in seeing it go forward," Hoskins said.

Watch DEVASTATING New Attack Ad Against Mitch McConnell Calling Him Out for Being Arsonist and Firefighter!

A few weeks ago, when the end was nigh in the shutdown and the Republicans’ ratings began to squarely tank, there was some talk about whether or not Democrats would have the wisdom and cojones to capitalize on it in 2014. The answer, it seems, is a solid yes…and no.

Yes, Dems like Alison Lundergan Grimes, alongside democratic PACs like the Democratic House Majority are proving that they know to strike the dragon’s belly when it rears. And no, they’re not waiting until 2014.

This ad from Kentucky’s former Secretary of State Grimes pulls no punches when it comes to Mitch McConnell, who has landed directly in her sights when she declared her run for Senate in July, 2013.

Specifically, Grimes’ ad targets the Kentucky Turtle’s assertion that he and he alone played Neo to Obama’s Architect, shutting down the shutdown and saving us all from extinction. Mitch:

“I’ve demonstrated, once again, that when the Congress is in gridlock and the country is at risk, I’m the guy who steps forward and tries to get us out of the ditch.”

This commercial from the Grimes campaign, though, begs to differ:

McConnell shouldn't brag about supporting bills he opposed

Several weeks ago, Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R) got caught misleading Kentucky voters about his record on the Violence Against Women Act. This morning, he was even more brazen on the subject (via Joe Sonka).

A press release distributed by Sen. Mitch McConnell's (R-KY) campaign at a "Women for Team Mitch" event on Friday brags about the Senate Minority Leader's support for the Violence Against Women Act, even though McConnell voted against the measure in 1994, 2012, and 2013.

"Mitch was the co-sponsor of the original Violence Against Women Act -- and continues to advocate for stronger polices to protect women. I am proud to call him my senator," the document quotes a voter as saying.

For months, a variety of congressional Republicans have pretended to support the Violence Against Women Act, even after they voted against it, hoping voters and reporters wouldn't know the difference.

But the fact that McConnell has a lot of company doesn't make this any better. His campaign is now trying to give voters the impression that he's championed VAWA, but in reality, McConnell has voted against it repeatedly. Indeed, he voted against it even when he knew with certainty it would pass -- suggesting he opposed the law just to make a point about the depth and seriousness of his opposition.

As for the notion that McConnell "continues to advocate for stronger polices to protect women," let's also not forget that the Senate Minority Leader voted against the Lilly Ledbetter Act and the Paycheck Fairness Act.

If McConnell wants to defend his record, fine. If he wants Kentuckians to find merit in the votes he cast, the senator is welcome to make his case. But the fact that he sees willful deception as the appropriate course is a problem.

Here’s A Campaign Ad That Might Actually Make You Cry

Kentucky’s Secretary of State, Alison Lundergan Grimes, may be starting off her bid for the U.S. Senate a bit behind Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY), but her first campaign ad is a doozy.

The ad quickly cuts back to her first ad in 2010, when she launched her campaign for statewide office with the help of her grandmothers Elsie and Thelma. In three minutes and 41 seconds, Grimes makes the case for her candidacy, separates herself from the president — who isn’t particularly popular in Kentucky — and goes after “the biggest part of the problem”: Senator McConnell.

She also manages to take a sideswipe at the McConnell campaign’s odd attempt to frame her, then ends on a note that actually made me tear up. I admit it.

It’s hard to imagine a campaign ad more endearing than this.

Watch it and let us know what you think.