Matt Gunterman November 20th, 2007

So the new Survey USA numbers come out today showing that McConnell’s approval is tanking, and several national bloggers pick up on what should be a purely happy and schadenfreude-filled story for all parties concerned with the effort to banish Mitch McConnell (R) from the halls of congress.

Unfortunately, many of those big-name bloggers took the good news and managed to alienate needlessly a significant portion of the grassroots in Kentucky with it. Of particular note are Kos of DailyKos and Jonathan Singer of MyDD who ended their posts on the matter with nearly identical lines. To quote Singer, “If you want to help turn up the heat on McConnell, head over to DraftCrit.com — which is seeking to get Democratic state Auditor Crit Luallen to run for the Senate — to get involved.”

Now, everybody here knows that Crit Luallen (D) isn’t the only Democrat considering a run against Mitch McConnell. Attorney General Greg Stumbo (D) and Lt. Col. Andrew Horne (D) are actively doing so, as well. Everybody knows that; it’s been talked about for months now.

And since everybody knows that, that’s what makes the singular focus of Kos and Singer on the draft Luallen movement (which is by no means a bottom-up, grassroots effort; it’s entirely driven by the Kentucky Democratic establishment) a blatant dissing of Stumbo, Horne, and their respective supporters.

DitchMitchKY as a blog has remained neutral among these various Democrats, while pretty much every other major blog has picked its pony. Only nice things have been said about the serious potential candidates here, from Charlie Owen (D), to Stumbo, Horne, and Luallen. No matter who the eventual Democratic nominee is against McConnell, this blog will enthusiastically support him or her. Our mission here is simply to ditch Mitch.

I have my own opinions about which candidate might be best at making that goal a reality, and I have my own opinions about the individual strengths and weaknesses of the potential candidates. I’m keeping those to myself, however, and we are using this platform to inform and edify the people who find their way here.

And, you know what? This nation and its progressives will rally around whichever Democrat is the eventual nominee. That’s a fact. So, Kos, Singer, and the like achieve absolutely nothing positive in thumbing their digital noses at Stumbo and Horne supporters. This race is for Kentucky Democrats to decide. The one thing they did achieve (along with whoever is encouraging them to focus solely on Luallen at this stage) is to tick off a lot — and I mean a lot — of Kentucky progressive activists.

No-one’s saying that honest discussion and handicapping of the candidates isn’t appropriate, but to ignore that the other candidates are in the race is simple arrogance. All supporters of the other candidates are asking is for a little respect for the Democratic process and for their candidates.

And by offering only implicit disrespect, these national bloggers are doing the budding Kentucky progressive movement no good.

UPDATE(Wed. 1:00pm ET): I retract my use of the word “entirely” above when speaking of Crit Luallen’s draft movement being a Kentucky Democratic establishment phenomenon. That’s simply not the case. I should have written “significantly”.

• 2008 KY U.S. Senate Race , Andrew Horne , Charlie Owen , Crit Luallen , Greg Stumbo
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Matt Gunterman June 12th, 2007

Ted Schlecter over at The Bridge is hearing chatter that Charlie Owen will announce his candidacy against Senator Mitch McConnell for 2008 sometime in the next month.

Ted is also speculating that there will be a Democratic primary, which I assume is Ted’s way of saying that Attorney General Greg Stumbo will enter the race. I’m all for a healthy and friendly primary because it keeps the Democratic candidates in the spotlight and whoever wins the primary will, of course, come away with the momentum and aura of that win. Stumbo proved in this year’s Democratic primary that he’s a class act, and so is Owen.

Also, Ted highlights Mark Hebert’s report on the latest scandal to hit the Fletcher administration: bid rigging and the steering of state highway contracts in the Transportation Department to Fletcher’s political supporters.

• 2008 KY U.S. Senate Race , Charlie Owen , Ernie Fletcher , Greg Stumbo
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Matt Gunterman May 24th, 2007

Mark Hebert’s blog at WHAS mentioned this item of interest below.

Charlie Owen did a wise thing in waiting until after the Democratic primary before officially starting this process, which I’m pretty sure will see his entry into the race and him dedicating millions and millions of dollars of his own funds to the effort. Now that we’ve got the Democratic primary out of the way without a nasty runoff, it’s time to turn the heat up on Senator Mitch McConnell. The governor’s race is already over, quite frankly.

ONE DAY AFTER THE 2007 PRIMARY RACE — CANDIDATES ARE LINING UP FOR 2008. WHAS ELEVEN NEWS HAS LEARNED LOUISVILLE BUSINESSMAN CHARLIE OWEN IS MEETING THURSDAY WITH U.S. SENATE LEADER HARRY REID AND SENATOR CHARLES SCHUMER OF NEW YORK. OWEN’S POLITICAL ADVISOR SAYS THE THREE MEN WILL DISCUSS THE PROSPECT OF OWEN RUNNING AGAINST KENTUCKY SENATOR MITCH MCCONNELL NEXT YEAR. OWEN HAS LOST PREVIOUS RACES FOR CONGRESS AND U.S. SENATE.

• 2008 KY U.S. Senate Race , Charlie Owen , Mitch McConnell
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Matt Gunterman May 8th, 2007

Since so many of our readers on this blog aren’t from Kentucky — many found it when it was featured on The Politico and others simply have an interest in following the election prospects of the nation’s #1 money-grubbing, influence-mongering, Bush-enabling Republican senator, Mitch McConnell — they might not be aware of many of the non-elected personalities that contribute to Kentucky’s political environment. Let me introduce you to just one such personality today.

Now, Kentucky Republicans aren’t a terribly intellectually dynamic bunch. Senator Mitch McConnell, in fact, has purposefully nurtured a political machine that is by its very nature not creative or interested in thinking outside the box. McConnell’s not a visionary himself (he’s just a master of procedure) and he doesn’t like visionaries in his operation.

While there aren’t any intellectuals among Kentucky Republicans, there are some that you have to genuinely recognize as a little more intelligent than the average racist, bigoted, homophobic, sexist, xenophobic troglodyte that makes up Mitch McConnell’s political base. Yes, indeed, there are a few above average racist, bigoted, homophobic, sexist, xenophobic troglodytes there.

One of these admittedly above average sorts is John David Dyche, whose major claim to fame in Kentucky, I guess, is that he’s a Harvard Law alumnus. Now, those of us who know multiple Harvard Law alumni are quite aware that they’re on the whole a very efficient and capable bunch, but you probably wouldn’t label them as dynamically creative as a group.

Dyche, however, is a Harvard Law man who refuses to accept his robotic nature; he instead longs to be recognized as a creative soul, even though there’s not a creative bone in his body. Dyche is, therefore, a man tormented by a rather terrible sort of Cartesian duality.

For years, Dyche has been working on a biography of Mitch McConnell. When it will be published, no-one knows, but if it’s the ending he’s having problems writing — if that’s what’s holding him up — then it’s the ending we shall give him here.

But, what about the quality of Dyche’s political analysis, you ask? For even robots can crunch numbers (of course, the numbers on McConnell don’t look so good), right?

Here’s a sample of Dyche’s brilliance on why McConnell will be formidable in 2008:

Separation from Republicans.

Democrats will try to link McConnell to President Bush in 2008, but he long ago mastered the art of establishing his political independence. McConnell irked some local Republicans by running his own race against Hollenbach, and running on a GOP slate almost allowed Malone to win.

McConnell ran with Ronald Reagan atop the ticket in 1984, but denies gaining from the Gipper’s coattails. He began in 1990 by emphasizing his ties to the first George Bush, but by separating after the president broke his “no new taxes” promise, McConnell survived the sour anti-incumbent national mood.

[...]

Yes, Dyche, we Democrats will have a hard time connecting McConnell with Bush. Yeah, a really hard time. I guess Dyche doesn’t quite understand what even most Republicans understand: by nature of the position, the senate minority leader can’t separate himself or herself from the president so easily. McConnell accepted the position on the presumption that he’d have no hard battle in 2008.

He was wrong. Why was he wrong? Because he’s not a political genius.

• 2008 KY U.S. Senate Race , Charlie Owen , Mitch McConnell
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The Hound Dog April 23rd, 2007

I am still mind-boggled as to why Senator Mitch McConnell released inflated poll results that read positives for him and negatives for Charlie Owen, which still only showed McConnell at 55 percent. By releasing these numbers and refusing to publish his actual re-elect number McConnell essentially let everyone know that he is an incumbent minority leader that is under 50 percent in his home state.

In one question, McConnell’s campaign pointed out that Owen “has no experience in public office and if elected he would be 70 years old on the day he was sworn in, one of the oldest freshman senators in U.S. history.”

McConnell is 65.

“It’s a weak poll and he’s desperate,” said Riddle, who notes that as Senate minority leader, McConnell must support President Bush’s policies, which are increasingly unpopular in Kentucky. “He had to push his way to get to 55 percent.”

Yeah, we know Charlie Owen is 4 years older than Mitch McConnell. But when he was a spry 65, he was still sharp enough to realize sending 20,000 American soldiers into an Iraqi civil war was a bad idea.

• 2008 KY U.S. Senate Race , Charlie Owen , Mitch McConnell , Opinion Polls
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