The Least Shocking News Ever: Mitch McConnell set to screw John McCain and fiscal responsibility
Joe Sonka March 7th, 2008
(crossposted at BlueGrassRoots)
I predicted on Monday that Mitch McConnell was about to screw over John McCain and his party's future by nixing the proposed freeze on earmarks.
Today, The Hill says I'm right.
A Senate Republican task force on earmarks is expected to stop short of temporarily freezing funding for pet projects, breaking with the party’s presidential nominee and House GOP leaders who are trying to make it a wedge issue in the election, according to people involved in the effort.
The five-member task force, convened in January by Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (Ky.), meets Friday to move toward a consensus position. The issue has continued to dog congressional Republicans who are under enormous pressure from their base to rein in earmarking. Final recommendations are due by March 15.
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Making a strong consensus even more daunting, McConnell has asked the group to report out only those recommendations upon which members unanimously agree. But the task force’s members run the gamut from Sen. Tom Coburn (Okla.), who sought no earmarks last year, to Sen. Thad Cochran (Miss.), who secured more than $830 million worth of earmarks in 2007, the most in Congress.
The Club for Growth and Wall St. Journal pile on:
Newly minted presidential nominee John McCain stepped into the Rose Garden this week to receive President Bush's blessing. What the cameras didn't catch were pork-addicted congressional Republicans blowing raspberries from their offices.
With all the talk about how Mr. McCain needs to unify his party, lost has been the question of whether some people will let him. Washington Republicans know he's their best shot at retaining the White House. Yet many remain ambivalent about him — not because they question his conservatism, but out of resentment that he may get in the way of their earmarks.
This has resulted in a behind-the-scenes brawl, as spend-happy Republicans resist efforts by wiser heads to fall in behind Mr. McCain's anti-earmark message. At best, the spenders risk an embarrassing pummeling by their own nominee that could hurt them in their own re-election campaigns. At worst, they could undercut one of Mr. McCain's more persuasive messages.
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Driving this is the old philosophy that bacon is necessary to win elections. Minority Leader Mitch McConnell is already running re-election ads in Kentucky boasting about the $200 million he secured for universities, as well as a hefty buyout he secured for his state's tobacco farmers.
I'll just reiterate what I said Monday:
So Mitch McConnell has a choice: (1) continue his campaign strategy of bragging about how how pork and government waste he can bring to KY in order to secure support for himself, or (2) go with "conservative" principles and end earmarks for the sake of John McCain and the Republican Party.
But when it comes to Mitch McConnell, one thing should be certain: the only thing he cares about is himself and his own power. McConnell does not have any principle and will do whatever is necessary for himself. So, as the GOP aide said in the story, Mitch indeed will have to "decide if (his) pork is more important than (his) party’s future."
Don't hold your breath folks, I can tell you how this story ends.
Well, I can tell you that it smells like bacon.
And dead, rotting elephants.
- John McCain , Mitch McConnell , Pork Spending
- Comments(6)
Well, I ran against a “pork king” Hal Rogers in 2006, and I’m running against a “pork king” Mitch McConnell in 2008. It’s wrong to loot the national treasury. Maybe it’s good politics to loot the national treasury but it is immoral and it is wrong. I’d rather be able to look at myself in the mirror when I shave in the morning than know that I am a “pork barrel king” who has gotten billions of dollars of earmarks, of government payments to contractors not controlled by competitive bidding to help my friends and supporters to loot the national treasury. No, earmarks look too much like looting, and the government is too overburdened with budget deficits to support the Republican neverending war in Iraq, Republican warrantless wiretaps of American citizens, Republican-authorized torture, and Republican “earmarks” which is outright looting of the U.S. Treasury by people that call themselves “conservatives” and Republicans. Now Winston Churchill was a member of the Conservative Party in England, but I have never heard of him advocating torture, warrantless wiretaps of his own country’s citizens, his country invading some smaller independent country, nor fiscal irresponsibility. In his younger years, Winston Churchill was a member of the Liberal Party in England, and again, I have never heard of him advocating torture, warrantless wiretaps of his own country’s citizens, his country invading some smaller independent country, nor fiscal irresponsibility. Now Mitch McConnell, by his actions, certainly advocates torture, warrantless wiretaps of his own country’s citizens, his country invading some smaller independent country, and fiscal irresponsibility. To be civil, I decline to state what type of person, like Mitch McConnell, advocates torture, warrantless wiretaps of his own country’s citizens, his country invading some smaller independent country, and fiscal irresponsibility, but it certainly ain’t a Conservative and it certainly ain’t a Liberal either. Kenneth Stepp.
Senator Mitch McConnell, refused to answer a child’s question “Will my daddy die in the war” and then, by some accounts, used his influence to get the child’s mother fired from her job (Real Leadership).
One can easily conclude from Senator Mitch McConnell’s voting record that he, Senator Mitch McConnell is against SCHIP, for torture, for warrantless wiretaps, for the Iraq war, and as the King of Siam said in the movie “The King and I” etc. etc. etc. etc. etc. etc. etc. etc. etc. etc. etc. etc. etc. etc. etc. etc. etc. etc. etc. etc. etc.!!!!!!!!!!
Mitch, leader of the party of torture, will soon be soooo lonely, all by his little ole self….
A Democratic victory in a special election to fill the congressional seat held by former Republican House Speaker Dennis Hastert is a sign of things to come,……………… (CNN)
One can sum up McConnell easily. This cretin has unashamedly and without reservation supported Shrub’s illegal, immoral and unnecessary war of choice in Iraq. This unnecessary war of choice will soon cost 4000 American lives, with many tens of thousands wounded, either physically or mentally. And, then, there is the monetary cost. Nobel prize winning economist Stiglitz has placed the overall cost at $THREE TRILLION!!! Now, what could that $3 trillion have done for the USA?? How about putting Social Security and Medicare on a more sound basis??? Or, maybe start the necessary rebuilding of this nation’s crumbling infastructure. Or, how about health insurance for the poorest of our citizens. If this fool McConnell is reelected, it will be a sure sign that this nation is doomed.
Flush this turkey in Nov.
Amen!
second that AMEN