Why Mitch McConnell is Involved in an Alabama Special Election
Going to bat for Strange
Jeff Sessions’ appointment to the Attorney General post has left a Senate seat vacant. To fill it, Alabama is holding a special election this December. With the primary on August 15 and the runoff September 26.
The last thing Majority Leader McConnell wants is yet another dissenter in the ranks, so he’s throwing the full force of his war machine behind the current and recently appointed Senator Luther Strange. McConnell hopes to keep contenders Rep. Mo Brooks (a member of the House Freedom Caucus) and former state Supreme Court Chief Justice Roy Moore out of a runoff for one reason — both have vocalized opposition to McConnell.
Politico reports:
McConnell is responding in kind. His super PAC is set to spend as much as $8 million to boost his favored candidate, recently appointed Republican Sen. Luther Strange. McConnell has activated his sprawling donor network and pressed the White House for more resources. And the National Republican Senatorial Committee, the Senate GOP campaign arm McConnell controls, has warned consultants they’ll be cut off from future work if they assist Strange’s opponents.
And in a highly unusual step, one of McConnell’s top political lieutenants has begun quietly advising a long-shot Republican primary candidate running for Brooks’ House seat. The move is designed to get in the congressman’s head and dissuade him from emptying his campaign war chest in the race for Attorney General Jeff Sessions’ old Senate seat.
It’s a massive undertaking by McConnell and his allies on behalf of Strange, who was appointed a mere six months ago to fill the seat until a special election. In part, McConnell’s urgency reflects his long-standing promise to protect besieged Republican incumbents in primaries. But it also underscores his struggles managing his narrow Senate majority, which were punctuated by the collapse of Obamacare repeal legislation last week after three Republicans broke ranks.
Moore, who’s pitched himself as a rebel, has no want of McConnell’s support. (Politico Ctd.):
Moore, who rose to national fame after he refused to obey a federal order to remove a monument of the Ten Commandments from an Alabama judicial building, made his feelings clear about the leader in a lengthy fundraising appeal with the subject line, “You & Me vs Mitch McConnell.”
“If Mitch McConnell is accusing me of being a ‘conservative rebel’ who won’t march in lockstep behind his Big Government, big-spending agenda,” Moore wrote, “then I plead guilty as charged!”
“I don’t have — nor want — the backing of Mitch McConnell and his cronies in Washington,” Moore added.
At The Resurgent, Erickson writes that Strange and McConnell seemed more focused on tanking Brooks, means they view him as the bigger threat going into a runoff:
Strange is just another establishment hack and all the DC establishment hacks are going to bat for him.
The thing with Moore and Brooks is that Moore would be the more disruptive of the two, but the fact that Luther Strange is spending massive amounts of money to kill off Mo Brooks now suggests Strange fears Mo Brooks more than Moore.
I have a lot of friends who support Roy Moore, but it is worth noting that Strange and McConnell are both doing whatever they can to keep Mo Brooks out of a runoff. Their theory seems to be that Moore’s base may go to Mo Brooks, but no one else would join Moore. Moore is a rather polarizing figure.
That said, Moore is doing quite well and has a strong name ID and loyal base of supporters. The question is whether he can withstand all the money that is going to savage him in a runoff. The establishment has a vested interest in getting Luther Strange back to the Senate, which means you should have a vested interest in stopping him.
Mitch McConnell wants Luther Strange should be the campaign motto of either of Strange’s opponents. Do to McConnell in a Republican Primary what Republicans do to Nancy Pelosi in general elections and it could be the first step in ousting him as leader.
McConnell has long been successful when cranking up his influence machine, but with his inability to close the Obamacare repeal deal, he’s gonna need more luck than ever to pull off an incumbent upset this time around.
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Comments
Repeat of what happened in Mississippi (2014)? “Chris McDaniel Says Mitch McConnell Sold His Soul For Power, Future Of America At Stake” http://www.rightwingwatch.org/post/chris-mcdaniel-says-mitch-mcconnell-sold-his-soul-for-power-future-of-america-at-stake/
The Mississippi Massacre, where Haley Barbour planted racist rumors in the press to increase Dem turnout, along with other dirty tricks. McConnell’s fingerprints were all over it, and John McCain praised the action.
This is around the time that McConnell remarked of “crushing the Tea Party.” This seemed to be very telling. Rather than seeking common with those with whom he ought to be able to do so, he seemed more to do so with the Dems. This is one guy I’d like too see his hat handed to him and shown to the door.
Even worse, McConnell has publicly blackballed any organization that works with the challengers. Disagreement of opinion is one thing, but this is far beyond the pale.
No Republican voter should tolerate a leader who persecutes his own side.
Article V Convention of States
Repeal the 17th Amendment
1. We don’t need OR want any kind of convention, for ANY reason; the men who gave us the Constitution we now have were brighter and better educated than anybody we have today. Too many today want a convention to derail the Constitution. Besides, our Constitution is perfectly fine; we simply need men and women who will strictly obey it (as per their oath of office, which they regularly ignore).
2. Yes, repeal the 17th Amendment, and let the state legislators elect the senators–as was our Founding Fathers intent–and restore the rights of the states. As it is, the states have no say in the federal government, even though the Constitution declares that the Union exists because of and has its authority from the individual states.
The men who crafted the constitution were brilliant, and they foresaw the situation that we find ourselves in today; the federal government is out of control and has proven, time and time again, that it is unwilling and unable to “right the ship.” I’m afraid that relying on “good men and women” is simply asking for more of the same. What we have seen is that power corrupts; good men and women go off to “serve the public” in DC and they don’t come come until decades later when they’re fat and rich and corrupt. How on earth do we expect that to fix itself?
Luckily the brilliant minds who gave us the constitution also gave us a way to seize power back, without the help of the corrupt congress and the army of minions feeding at the trough around them. Repealing the 17th would be one great amendment the Article V convention could propose, along with numerous others such as term limits and more clearly defining “interstate commerce.”
You express concern that nefarious parties could use a convention to “derail” the convention. But a convention of states can only consider issues specified in the numerous state bills calling for the convention. And any proposed amendments would have to be ratified by 3/4 of states. Given the trend over the last decade in state-level politics, now seems to be a great time for conservatives to seize back control.
Are you familiar with the states that have signed onto the convention and the topics that are addressed in their bills? There is nothing that I think would concern a conservative or even a libertarian.
Never going to happen I’m afraid Paul.
To many people with to much invested to ensure it never happens.
Mailman
Finally we get real bipartisan support for a candidate. McConnell on the one side and Republicans on the other. You just can not get more bipartisan than that.
I am going to listen to the Stars Fell On Alabama and hope that Mitch McConnell is severely disappointed…
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fachmkjXcoA
I can’t think of a single person I know who would give McConnell a penny. Two cents, absolutely! I would love to give him my two cents.
McConnell does NOT want any more Ted Cruzes or Mike Lees in the Senate. They are honest men, and expose the corruption and fecklessness of the GOP establishment.
The sight of this scummy rino is almost as nauseating as looking at mccain.
Out of the three Roy Moore has consistently win statewide election even after being removed from office.
Won not win
Go!, Judge Moore! All the way for the win.
What McConnell wants is another Senator who will help him enact whatever the Democrats demand.
Bitch McConnell is my senator. He is a faggot, two-faced loser. He damn sure doesn’t want a real American like Mo Brooks in his senate chamber. America wants him though. Mr. Brooks is a fine man and a patriot. McConnell, not so much.
McConnell is a disgrace, So is Kevin McCarthy, John McCain, Lisa Murkowski, Susan Collins, Thad Cochran, Lindsay Graham, Orrin Hatch, Lamar Alexander, Bob Corker, John Cornyn, Shelly Capito, Rob Portman, and NOW WITH ADDED HIPOCRACY, JEFF FLAKE!..