Joe Sonka August 31st, 2008

(crossposted at Barefoot and Progressive)

Just when you thought that Mitch McConnell couldn’t become any more of a heartless, lipless villain, we get a story like this which launches him to comic book super-villain status.

Adding to the list of lobbyist groups that Mitch is a paid shill for, we are introduced to …. the Horse-cruelty lobby. Kentucky’s best journalist John Cheves brings home the goods:

Sen. Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., pressured the U.S. Department of Agriculture for years to back off its enforcement of the Horse Protection Act, even threatening to cut the agency’s funding, according to documents obtained by the Herald-Leader.

McConnell has supported the Tennessee Walking Horse industry in its battle against USDA inspectors who look for evidence of soring, the illegal practice of deliberately injuring a horse’s front feet to get it to step higher in an exaggerated style known as “the Big Lick.”

McConnell backed the industry’s demand for its own inspectors — paid by the industry, drawn from the ranks of horse owners and trainers — to have a greater role in soring inspections, rather than the independent USDA veterinarians who uncover and report soring more frequently.

At the same time, the industry gave McConnell tens of thousands of dollars in campaign donations and hired his Senate chief of staff, Niels Holch, as its Washington lobbyist and attorney.

“McConnell probably has caused more problems for horse protection single-handedly than any other person. He set the cause of horse protection back by years,” said Donna Benefield, administrative director of the Horse Protection Commission, a USDA-certified inspection organization in Gallatin, Tenn.

“He has supporters here (in Tennessee) — financial supporters, if not people who can vote for him — who are doing illegal things and don’t want to get caught,” Benefield said. “It’s very important to them that the law be loosely enforced. Sen. McConnell has been their champion in that.”

Just another example of the type of powerful leadership that Mitch provides in the Senate for the people of Kentucky, eh?

My sources report that Mitch also has ties to the “Poke Neighborhood Dog with a Stick” industry and the “Throw Cat off the Roof to See if it Lands on Feet” lobby.

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