Nick Stump March 13th, 2007

A recent quote from Senator Mitch McConnell in The New Republic’s The Plank blog betrays a weakened man who probably sees the handwriting on the wall when it comes to his future as a legislator: in the minority. Can Republicans take back the Senate in 2008? Here’s what McConnell had to say to that possibility with regard to the nation’s current focus on the war in Iraq:

Would I like the [2008] election to be about something else? You bet. We are the economic engine of the world in many ways…but that fact has become lost in public concern over Iraq. Iraq has just put people in a kind of funky mood.

Indeed, Iraq has put people in Kentucky in a very “funky mood.” Support for the war in rural America has dropped to 39 percent, its lowest point since fighting broke out. Moreover, a study by The Center For Rural Strategies in Whitesburg, Kentucky tracked 2006 rural voting trends and found that rural voters all over the country are slowly moving out of the Republican Party’s general sphere of influence.

This little statistic should be most troubling to Sen. McConnell. If rural Kentuckians are turning away from the GOP, then it’s a prime indicator that Republicans are in a heap more trouble than is conventional wisdom in the mainstream media.

As a bloc, rural voters are generally more conservative than their urban counterparts, but looking at a place like eastern Kentucky we must remember that large parts of the area were originally Democratic, and even into the recent past the voting habits of different counties there were still influenced by their great-grandfathers political leanings in the era of the Civil War.

For example, Breathitt County was for years a Democratic stronghold, while next door, Owsley County was solidly Republican. These old Civil War divisions are finally receding into the cultural past, and voters all over rural Kentucky are looking at the issues facing their communities in the here and now. And when one sees the Republican record on rural issues, Sen. McConnell and company have a failing grade.

Rural veterans see Sen. McConnell’s poor record on veterans issues. His scorecard from groups like the Disabled American Veterans is woefully low. As we move away from voting lockstep the way our fathers voted, more and more rural Kentuckians are taking a hard look at Sen. McConnell’s real record on those issues that affect the working class here. McConnell’s habit of taking from the rich and screwing everyone else just isn’t going to cut it.

Rural voters in Virginia and Montana helped secure the U.S. Senate for the Democrats with the election of Senators Webb and Tester, two strong populist Democrats who every day remind the country that government exists to serve the people. I see the 2006 Democratic victory as a sign: the little guy is fed up. The working poor can’t live on soup beans and promises forever, and the promises made by Sen. McConnell and his cronies haven’t delivered help to anyone but the corporate owners of the Republican Party.

Sen. McConnell has his hand firmly planted in the pockets of these corporations. His successful efforts to support the credit card companies have wreaked havoc on the working people of Kentucky. This connection between Sen. McConnell and the credit card companies is especially ironic, as Kentucky has one of the highest bankruptcy rates in the nation.

Mitch’s buddies running the large drug companies have have been ever so grateful for the Kentucky Senator’s help in making sure they sell their drugs to Medicare at the highest possible profit. Even the Veteran’s Administration has the right to make a deal on prices with these drug companies, but Medicare is not allowed. In other words, the people and the government are being cheated daily by Sen. McConnell and company with no regard for the welfare of the people or the financial solvency of our Union.

But that’s OK with Sen. McConnell, as long as he has a big war chest to save him from defeat the next time he’s up for election. Sen. McConnell has successfully identified these corporate donations as free speech, but it’s no secret those with the largest bank account can buy the largest amount of free speech.

In Kentucky, our unofficial motto is, “Thank God For Mississippi.” As Haley Barbour’s Mississippi stands even lower than Kentucky in the statistics that count. The irony is– McConnell is most powerful and best financed senator in the Republican Party. Yet Kentucky, the state he represents, stands near the bottom in education, good paying jobs, health care–all the true bread and butter issues affecting the future of working Kentuckians. Thanking God for Mississippi is little comfort to someone who can’t make their house payment.

McConnell has all this power with these multinational companies, the defense contractors, the drug and insurance companies, but what has this influence actually brought to the Commonwealth? None of that power or money trickles down to the young wounded Eastern Kentucky veteran who can’t get proper health care to go with his Purple Heart and none of the power trickles down to the communities who have watched their jobs and medical care disappear. McConnell’s vision of the Republican Party has no room for those who will not have enough money to retire, and nothing but a Plan D drug program written by the drug companies for our elderly.

Is this the kind of representation we want? Do we want a Senator who cares more about the profits of Merck than he does about the profits of the guy who works 70 hours a week running his neighborhood store. Does an Energy bill written by the energy companies put a dime in the pocket of a poor coal miner in Harlan County? Kentuckians all over the state are beginning to say no to these questions, and they’re looking for the right candidate to bring Mitch home to Louisville for good.

People are talking about Charlie Owen. Charlie is a good capable man, and if Charlie decides to run–and he has some time to make that decision, I think we could do no better. Like all Democrats, I’m keeping my options open, but looking at Owen and knowing his high regard for the little man, Charlie looks like a strong candidate who can beat Mitch McConnell in 2008. It will take a lot of effort and money to beat the powerful McConnell machine, but with energized Democrats across the state working together, this victory can be our.

The Republicans and Sen. McConnell have had a long time to get it right. In 50 years of political watching, I have never seen either party squander such an opportunity, and they squandered this opportunity because of greed, corruption and complete disregard for the needs of the American people.

Our good-paying jobs have been outsourced to countries paying slave wages to their people, and subsequently, undercutting every American worker. Unions have been pushed out of business and the people have become the helpless victim of a Republican Party willing to completely sell out America, create a national debt that will haunt our grandchildren to their graves–anything it takes to stay in power. And who is the main architect of this policy? None other than the Honorable Senator from Kentucky, our very own Mitch McConnell.

Can’t afford your prescription drugs? Then blame Mitch. Your former job now in Mexico? Then blame Mitch. Your son or husband pulling his 4th deployment in Iraq? Then blame Mitch. He the chief wielder of Republican power. He has provided the money that makes the Republican engine run, and while Presidents and staffs come and go, Mitch has been firmly planted in Washington for years and he plans to stay.

So what does trickle down to the people? The big corporations have their tax cuts, their corporate welfare, their private planes, the over-inflated CEO salaries. Much has trickled up to these corporations, but what trickles down to the people–the only thing that trickles down is poverty.

Sen. McConnell is singing the blues about how this darned war keeps hogging the attention. But as the election grows closer, our Senator McConnell may long for the days the war kept America’s attention off other issues facing him. Sure, he’s sold out to the defense contractors and we are embroiled in a terrible war, but I see even more trouble on the horizon for McConnell and his cronies. As more Kentucky voters, Republican and Democratic look at McConnell’s dismal voting record, I predict he’ll be fighting for his life in the 2008 race. He cannot hide from his record. Kentucky voters will see how McConnell has voted against Veterans, the elderly, the middle class and the working poor at every turn.

I’m predicting in on a certain Wednesday in November 2008, Mitch McConnell will really be singing the blues. And oh, what sweet music it will be.

• Humor , Kentucky GOP , Mitch McConnell , Republican Party Decline
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