Monday, March 10, 2014

McConnell vows to crush Tea Party

Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell is running for re-election this year and faces a tough primary challenge from a Tea Party-endorsed candidate.

The longtime Kentucky senator is obviously looking for a fight, because he had tough words for the ultra-conservative edge of the Republican Party who put up the candidate challenging him (via CNN.com):
"I think we are going to crush them everywhere," McConnell told the New York Times in an interview. "I don't think they are going to have a single nominee anywhere in the country."
I'm pretty sure the Tea Party was satisfied with those remarks, and they probably went on with their day without raising any ruckus.

Or not.
"It is shameful that the Senate minority leader would make such comments. He is talking about the base of the party, so he must not want the tea party vote in the general election and that is why he should be removed. The GOP needs a uniter, not someone that is there because they have seniority," Amy Kremer, the Tea Party Express chair, told CNN.

"The days of the good ole boy club are coming to an end. This seat doesn't belong to Mitch McConnell or to the Republican Party. This seat belongs to ‘We the People’ and we will have our voices heard," Kremer added.

"Grassroots voters will not be bullied by self-anointed senators for life," said Matt Kibbe, president and CEO of FreedomWorks. "Mitch McConnell and his cronies still serve the people back home, and his hostile comments only provide more motivation to send new leadership to Washington."

"Does Senator McConnell have a political death wish? There was some division within tea party groups about whether to support him or support Matt Bevin and I think he just settled the issue," chimed in Judson Phillips, founder of the Tea Party Nation, told CNN.
Right. I can't say I'm sorry to see the entire GOP starting to reap the consequences of what they've sown by getting into bed with the radical right nutjobs of the Tea Party.

"Self-anointed"? "cronies"? "Death Wish"? Jeez, I thought that was the kind of talk they reserved for the President.

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