Joe Sonka October 1st, 2008

(crossposted at Barefoot and Progressive)

I’ll be honest with you… throughout this summer, I really didn’t think that we had a very good chance. Barring some unforeseen mega-scandal, I didn’t think that Bruce Lunsford was going to beat Mitch McConnell.

Then, the economy collapsed. The entire mantra of deregulation, lead by Senator Mitch McConnell, was exposed as a miserable failure. This was the Katrina moment for conservatism… a hollow and bankrupt ideology that espoused the view that we can trust Wall St. and Corporate America to regulate itself. Now America and Kentucky are on to the scam. Or “McCon Job“, if you will.

This was the beginning. Though the polls have shown the race closing, I still have been somewhat skeptical. I did not think that the race was really tied earlier this week, probably more like a 4 point lead for McConnell.

But I will say this: after what happened today, I honestly feel that this is Bruce Lunsford’s race to lose.

What happened today? Well, Mitch McConnell did something uncharacteristically sloppy, and it has severely killed his #1 asset for the final month of the campaign. That asset was Vencor.

Mitch McConnell fired his first long-awaited “V-bullet” on Friday. McConnell went after Bruce Lunsford’s Valor health care company, an offshoot of Vencor, his late-1990’s elderly home clusterfuck. He claimed that Vencor was only the tip of the iceberg, as Valor was still actively screwing patients, veterans no less, in their facilities.

But Mitch, who is known for being the evil genius of negative campaigning, got sloppy. Really sloppy.

Meet Adolfo Pina, WWII veteran and the star of Mitch McConnell’s attack ad. In fact, meet him in Bruce Lunsford’s new counter ad:

Yes, Mitch McConnell’s campaign decided to USE a veteran by intentionally twisting his words. And they got caught red-handed.

Lunsford’s campaign pounced:

LOUISVILLE – Adolfo Piña, a Navy veteran who served his country in World War II, says his words were wrongly used by Mitch McConnell’s campaign in ads attacking the care at Valor Healthcare clinics. Piña appears in McConnell ads that criticize Valor Healthcare, a company that contracts with the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs to provide cutting edge medical care to nearly 60,000 veterans across the country.

But Piña, who fought with the Navy in the Pacific, including several major battles in the Philippines, has high praise for Valor.

“Valor clinic is doing very good for me here in Texas City,” Piña says. “They’re doing a good job by taking care of our needs, they’re taking very good care of my needs and I’m just one of the thousands of veterans of World War II. The McConnell people interviewed me and took my words out of context. And I don’t appreciate that. They did exactly what I told them not to do.”

Piña echoes those comments in the new ad from Bruce Lunsford, which begins airing statewide today.

“McConnell has stooped to a new low,” said Lunsford spokesman Cary Stemle. “This is the mother of all McCON jobs: He exploited our veterans for political gain, conning Adolfo Piña into appearing in an ad attacking Valor Healthcare, even though Piña is happy with his care at Valor. What kind of senator exploits our veterans for political gain? McConnell’s desire to hold onto power knows no bounds. 24 years of this is enough.”

What does this do? It totally kills Mitch McConnell’s entire Vencor strategy.

This was Bruce Lunsford’s enormous Achilles Heel, and now it has virtually vanished. What is McConnell going to do now, trot out families saying that their grandmother was thrown out on the street in Florida? Who in the hell is going to believe him now? Everyone in Kentucky now knows that Mitch McConnell is willing to use anyone and stoop to any dishonest low when it comes to this. And this is on top of the already very good and consistent messaging of the Lunsford campaign, as they have been laying the groundwork that Mitch McConnell is blatantly dishonest and unethical for the past month (along with the KY media).

In one fell swoop, Mitch has thrown away his number #1 asset, while feeding Lunsford’s new #1 meme: Mitch McConnell’s dishonest and unethical behavior.

While credit is certainly due to whatever research staffer on Lunsford’s campaign tracked down Pina and talked to him, the real credit/blame goes to McConnell himself. To paraphrase the McConnell Youth at Fancy Farm, “Thanks, Mitch!!” (or just blast Radiohead’s “Just”)

Once this PERFECTLY DONE ad is blasted all over the airwaves for a week, I think that Bruce is going to take the lead in the polls. The lead. Not only that, but Mitch will be without the weapon that I’m certain was going to be his #1 tactic this month: Vencor. Mitch is going back to the drawing board, while the Lunsford campaign is going full speed ahead.

Game on, Mitch.

(PS- the ad screws Mitch in one other big way… coming soon…)

• Mitch McConnell
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