Shawn Dixon September 11th, 2007

How do you know when an incumbent Senator is really starting to worry about his re-election? When he is so desperate to sling mud that he calls on a group, which didn’t run a particular ad, to come out and denounce that ad.

Today Senator McConnell came out and called on Americans Against the Escalation in Iraq to denounce an ad that ran in yesterday’s New York Times. The ad was sponsored by Moveon.org.

Huh? Come on Senator, now you’re grasping at straws.

While on the surface this move may seem like the usual political posturing we’ve come to expect from McConnell, his call to AAEI tells us much more about how he plays politics. Mitch McConnell is his own worst enemy and he knows it. If the 2008 KY Senate race were held on the merits, he would lose in a landslide. By making a threat to AAEI, McConnell is trying to divert attention away from himself, and his failed leadership, by throwing mud at AAEI and attempting to establish a fictional opponent.

This sequence of events also reminds us that no matter who McConnell’s opponent, he absolutely will do everything in his power to make the race about them. If the race is about McConnell, he loses. Period.

From the Courier Journal

Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell’s re-election campaign has called on a group running a television commercial against him to denounce a full-page ad in yesterday’s New York Times paid for by one of the group’s affiliated political organizations.

(Please take note of the desperation. Just to clarify: McConnell publicly calls on AAIE, which runs its own ads, to denounce an ad they did not run, did not endorse, and did not sponsor.)

• 2008 KY U.S. Senate Race , Americans Against Escalation in Iraq , Mitch McConnell
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