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Tag: Mitch McConnell

  • FCC Chairman Ajit Pai Will Resign in January

    FCC Chairman Ajit Pai Will Resign in January

    Ajit Pai, Chairman of the Federal Communications Commission (FCC), has announced he will step down on January 20.

    Chairman Pai has presided over the FCC for the last four years, enacting a number of controversial changes. Most notably, Pai oversaw the repeal of the Obama-era net neutrality rules, as well as pursued efforts to block states from implementing their own. At the same time, under Pai’s oversight, the FCC focused on closing the digital divide and paving the way for faster 5G adoption.

    Given the incoming Biden/Harris administration’s stand on net neutrality, and tech in general, it is not surprising that Chairman Pai is planning to resign. In is statement announcing his departure Pai highlighted his accomplishments, both personal and professional:

    It has been the honor of a lifetime to serve at the Federal Communications Commission, including as Chairman of the FCC over the past four years. I am grateful to President Trump for giving me the opportunity to lead the agency in 2017, to President Obama for appointing me as a Commissioner in 2012, and to Senate Majority Leader McConnell and the Senate for twice confirming me. To be the first Asian-American to chair the FCC has been a particular privilege. As I often say: only in America.

    I also deeply appreciate the chance to have worked alongside the FCC’s talented staff. They are the agency’s best assets, and they have performed heroically, especially during the pandemic. It’s also been an honor to work with my fellow Commissioners to execute a strong and broad agenda. Together, we’ve delivered for the American people over the past four years: closing the digital divide; promoting innovation and competition, from 5G on the ground to broadband from space; protecting consumers; and advancing public safety. And this FCC has not shied away from making tough choices. As a result, our nation’s communications networks are now faster, stronger, and more widely deployed than ever before.

    Although it seems likely the incoming administration will reinstate net neutrality rules, it remains to be seen what other changes or rollbacks may be in store for current FCC policies.

  • Affordable Care Act Touted by Kentucky Governor Ahead of Grimes and McConnell Faceoff

    In a letter dated October 28 and sent to all Kynect enrollees in Kentucky, Democratic Governor Steve Beshear got a message to voters in the Bluegrass State that could help Alison Lundergan Grimes in her race against Republican incumbent Mitch McConnell.

    While the letter does serve the understandable official purpose of informing current enrollees about the upcoming open enrollment period, it also was an opportunity for Beshear to tout a program that Republican McConnell has expressed a desire to gut if re-elected to the Senate, where he hopes to become Senate Majority Leader.

    The letter reads, in part:

    “Dear Fellow Kentuckian:

    “You are one of the 521,000 Kentuckians who signed up for health insurance for yourself or your family through Kynect, our health benefit exchange, over the last year. I hope that you had a chance to visit a doctor and perhaps have some long-standing medical concerns addressed. You may have been treated for a chronic condition, received a now-affordable prescription, or been screened for cancer or heart disease. Maybe you were finally able to convince your spouse to get a nagging problem checked out, or get eyeglasses for your child.

    “If you did any of these things, congratulations. You know firsthand how life-changing health insurance can be. I have talked with many of you personally and I have been overwhelmed by the stories you have shared. For many of you, having health insurance didn’t just improve your quality of life – in many cases it saved lives.

    “Before Kynect, many Kentuckians were refused health care because they had a pre-existing condition; insurers were allowed to discriminate against women just because of their gender; and kids were dropped from their parents insurance at age 18, before many were on their feet and able to afford their own coverage.”

    The letter then put the situation in terms that voters could chew on in the few days leading to the elections.

    “We can’t go back to those old ways, and let families like yours lose the affordable, comprehensive health insurance you’ve waited so long to find.

    “Kynect is working, and you are the proof.

    “In Kentucky, we need healthy kids and a healthy workforce, and affordable health insurance is a key part of keeping kids in school and workers on the job. Kynect, and your improving health, are the keys to our future success!”

    Meanwhile, Mitch McConnell is being sued by Grimes for a mailer that some say smacks of voter suppression.

  • Alison Lundergan Grimes Sues Mitch McConnell Over Alleged Voter Suppression

    With Election Day at a distance that can be realistically talked about in terms of hours away, incumbent Senator from Kentucky Mitch McConnell and challenger Alison Lundergan Grimes are pulling out all the stops to get the edge they each need to win over the other.

    McConnell’s campaign war chest, previously bragged about as eclipsing Grimes’, got so low that the candidate had to loan his campaign $1.8 million dollars out of his own pocket. Then a mysterious outside donor started pumping cash into the state for third party issue ads attacking Grimes.

    For her part, Grimes has seen some heavy-hitters come through the Bluegrass State to help her in a last-minute rally to unseat McConnell. Hilary Clinton and Elizabeth Warren both stood with Grimes in the late days of the campaign.

    Now Grimes has filed an injunction against McConnell for what she alleges is a dirty voter suppression tactic. It seems McConnell sent out mailers to voters that were likely to swing for Grimes, making it sound like they were ineligible to vote on Tuesday.

    The mailers are official-looking and have the words “ELECTION VIOLATION NOTICE” across the top and warn:

    “You are at risk of acting on fraudulent information that has been targeted for citizens living in [county name inserted here].”

    The enclosed letter begins just as official-sounding.

    “This document serves as a notification to you, as a resident of Kentucky and a registered voter in the aforementioned Commonwealth, of fraudulent information that is being deliberately spread to voters in your area.”

    The letter goes on to accuse Grimes of spreading false information about McConnell. The message iteslf is not any different from any campaign ad declaring, “My opponent lied about me.” But Grime’s concern is that it is intentionally designed to look like something that might have been mailed from a state government department, such as her own office as Secretary of State, warning voters that they themselves are suspected of illegal voting activity. And this is what she wants a judge to rule on as voter suppression.

    Some who have received the mailer are saying that they are now afraid to vote on Tuesday.

    Election officials in Eastern Kentucky, where coal mining is heaviest, have now found it necessary to respond to the McConnell mailer so as to assure voters in their area that they are still eligible to vote on Tuesday and are not under investigation.

    “I don’t know what people are trying to do,” Perry County Clerk Haven King told WKYT. “There’s nothing fraudulent to my knowledge going on. And the people in Perry County, if you are registered to vote, you will be able to vote and you will be able to vote at your precinct.”

    Some McConnell supporters dismiss the mailers as no big deal. Kelsey Cooper, a spokesperson for the Kentucky GOP, said in a statement:

    “Alison Lundergan Grimes spent hundreds of thousands of dollars smearing Mitch McConnell and his wife but she’s upset about a mailer that holds her accountable for her blatant falsehoods. That’s exactly what we’ve come to expect from the Obama campaign machine that she’s attempted to introduce to Kentucky over the past two years.”

    The McConnell campaign is likely not worried about the injunction. The mailers are already sent and the election is only one more business day away.

  • Obamacare: Mitch McConnell Wants It Gone

    Obamacare: Mitch McConnell Wants It Gone

    Republican Senator Mitch McConnell is in the midst of a fiercely competitive re-election campaign in his home state of Kentucky against Democrat Alison Lundergan Grimes. However, the 72-year-old Minority Leader of the Senate is already talking about the future of Obamacare should he win in the upcoming election.

    McConnell recently told Fox News this week that taking aim at the Affordable Care Act is at the top of his list of priorities for next year, although he knows that getting rid of the law isn’t going to happen as long as President Obama is in office.

    “Obviously, he’s not going to sign a full repeal,” McConnell said.

    McConnell also knows that it would take 60 votes in the Senate to make it happen. “No one thinks we’re going to have 60 Republicans. And it would take a presidential signature. No one thinks we’re going to get that,” McConnell told Fox News.

    But Brian Gottlief, a Republican strategist for Purple Strategies, says that he thinks the GOP will bring up enough controversial pieces of Obamacare to force Democrats to take tough votes. “Issues like the employer mandate,” he said, “and the medical device tax will certainly come up for votes.”

    McConnell agrees.

    “There are pieces of [the law] that are extremely unpopular with the American public that the Senate ought to have a chance to vote on,” he said, mentioning that a number of Democratic senators already support the repeal on Obamacare’s tax on medical devices.

    “I’d like to put the Senate Democrats in the position of voting on the most unpopular parts of this law, and see if we can put it on the president’s desk and make him take real ownership of this highly destructive Obamacare,” he said.

    However there are some that no longer believe what Senator McConnell says.

    “He says he wants to rip Obamacare out ‘root and branch,’ but then flips days before his election and says he plans to surrender,” said Mary Vought, spokeswoman for the Senate Conservatives Fund, a group that has pushed Tea Party candidates in GOP primaries against establishment incumbents.

    But despite what McConnell’s hopes are, should Republicans take control of the Senate with the 114th Congress, his margin of control is likely to be much smaller than what Democrat Harry Reid currently holds. In addition, some of the new GOP senators will be replacing red-state Democrats who had already been voting with Republicans on many issues. This means that McConnell will get fewer votes on many bills than the numbers suggest.

    Republican Steve King (Iowa) still believes that the GOP should continue to vote to completely repeal the law to set an agenda for 2016.

    “It’s not so much about what could be passed but setting the agenda and debate for the next presidential race,” he said.

    President Obama still has two years in office and will most likely block any major changes to the law. After that, questions rise as to who will take his seat. If Hillary Clinton runs and wins, many of these arguments will be moot.

    In the meantime, many residents in McConnell’s home state of Kentucky are taking advantage of Kynect, Kentucky’s healthcare connection that is currently providing Medicaid and private insurance to more than 400,000 state residents.

  • Alison Lundergan Grimes “Won’t Be Bullied” By Mitch McConnell

    Alison Lundergan Grimes “Won’t Be Bullied” By Mitch McConnell

    Alison Lundergan Grimes spoke at a news conference recently while on the campaign trail in Kentucky, and is getting positive feedback from political correspondents for her willingness to relax a bit rather than sticking to the topics she’s already covered.

    Grimes also responded to Mitch McConnell’s recent attack ads, which focus on her refusal to divulge whether she voted for President Obama. Grimes has said many times that because privacy is a voter’s right–and because it’s part of a Senate leader’s job to protect those rights–she can’t in good conscience make her choice known, and made that clear in a recent debate against McConnell.

    “I’m not going to be bullied by Mitch McConnell or Chuck Todd,” she said during the news conference.

    As the campaign draws near an end ahead of Election Day, the The Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee has announced it will cease airing television ads for Grimes, a decision that the political media has run wild with. But she says it’s being blown out of proportion.

    “It’s a lot of hyperventilating out there by the media. This campaign is Kentucky through and through, and it’s going to be Kentuckians that carry it across the finish line,” she said.

    Grimes and McConnell have been neck-and-neck for the better part of the race, with the 30-year Senate veteran attacking Grimes for her stance on gun control laws and coal and accusing her of lying about him during her campaign. Grimes says it’s time for a breath of fresh air after three decades and frequently cites both their records when confronted with accusations of deception.

  • Elizabeth Warren Student Loan Bill Up for Senate Vote Wednesday

    Elizabeth Warren (D-MA) has been working on behalf of Americans with student loan debt since she took office in 2012.

    The first bill the freshman senator ever filed, back in May 2013, was designed to offer new, shockingly-low student loan interest rates at a time when, barring Congressional action, the rate on federally backed Stafford loans was set to double from 3.4 percent to 6.8 percent.

    That original bill, the Bank on Student Loans Fairness Act, went nowhere.

    In May 2014 Warren was back with the Bank on Students Emergency Loan Refinancing Act. The bill would amend the Higher Education Act of 1965 in order to allow refinancing of certain existing federal student loans at lower interest rates.

    Student loan borrowers could lower interest rates on old loans, which range from almost 7 percent to 9 percent or higher, to match those that the government offers to new buyers today: 3.86 percent for undergraduate loans, 5.41 percent for graduate loans and 6.41 percent for PLUS loans.

    The bill affects millions of Americans. Some 40 million, to be more precise. Collectively they owe $1.3 trillion in student loan debt. It is now the second-largest form of consumer debt after home mortgages.

    “From 2004 to 2012, the average student loan balance increased by 70 percent. Millions of young people are struggling to keep up with their student loan payments,” Warren and Congressman John Tierney (D-MA) recently wrote. “This is an emergency. Student loan debt is crushing our young people and weighing down our economy.”

    Last week Obama threw his support behind the bill.

    It is also endorsed by student groups as well as organizations like the Massachusetts Mortgage Bankers Association.

    As Warren and Tierney point out, “[e]very day, student loan debt stops more and more young people from moving out of their parents’ homes, from saving for a down payment, buying homes, buying cars, starting small businesses, saving for retirement or making purchases that grow our economy.”

    The bill’s opponents argue that it doesn’t address rising college costs:

    “This bill doesn’t make college more affordable, reduce the amount of money students will have to borrow, or do anything about the lack of jobs grads face in the Obama economy,” Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY) said in a statement.

    But Warren is moving forward with her campaign in spite of detractors.

    On Monday President Obama signed an executive order that would make as many as 5 million borrowers eligible to cap their student loan repayments at 10% of their monthly income.

    On Wednesday Warren’s bill will go up for vote on the Senate floor. Many doubt it can generate the 60 votes needed to prevent a filibuster in the Senate, much less pass the Republican-controlled House of Representatives.

    Regardless of Wednesday’s outcome, Democrats are using it as part of their Fair Shot Agenda, a slate of bills “designed to contrast Democratic values with those of the GOP by daring Republicans to reject poll-tested legislation.”

    Image via YouTube, Senator Elizabeth Warren

  • Alison Lundergan Grimes: Obama’s Candidate?

    Alison Lundergan Grimes: Obama’s Candidate?

    Kentucky Democrat Alison Lundergan Grimes will be watched like a hawk for the next few months, and you can bet she knows it. Grimes, who currently serves as Kentucky’s Secretary of State, easily won the Democratic primary on Tuesday and will advance to face long-time senator and incumbent Mitch McConnell in November’s general election.

    Grimes seeks to unseat McConnell as one of Kentucky’s senators. That would be a major coup for the Democrats, since McConnell is Senate Minority Leader and a major thorn in the side of Democrats on many issues. To that end, Grimes is using a classic approach when running against an incumbent. She is out to convince people that it is time for a change.

    Of course, the last thing Mitch McConnell wants is change, in one sense. But McConnell is also a seasoned veteran of electoral politics. He has held his seat in the Senate since 1985. He has fended off many challenges to his seat; the perennial “Ditch Mitch” yard signs and bumper stickers have had no effect on him.

    McConnell knows that you can’t run against a message of “change” with a message of “status quo”, not in a time when people are hurting. If folks were doing well and felt they would continue to do well, the old “don’t change horses midstream” approach would work. But now it won’t, and McConnell knows it.

    McConnell’s approach, instead, is two-pronged. He knows that Kentucky has been a red state ever since 2000. The Bluegrass State swung for Bill Clinton twice, even while keeping McConnell every time they had the chance to vote. And Kentucky has kept Democrat governor’s for 50+ years — briefly interrupted by a single term for Republican Ernie Fletcher from 2003-2007. But Kentucky was firmly in the red zone against Obama. So prong one of McConnell’s plan is to paint Alison Lundergan Grimes as “Obama’s candidate”.

    Prong two is to co-opt Grimes’ call for “change” by calling for some “change” himself. But in McConnell’s case, the change he wants is to become Senate Majority Leader. His hope is to lead the charge in a nationwide rout of Democrats, sweeping Republicans into a majority victory in November. His message to Kentuckians is to re-elect him, and take the lead in the nation.

    For her part, Grimes is countering by asserting her independence from Obama and the Democrat party in general. She says she is against coal regulations, even though Republicans will say she supports them. She is taking her message of independence directly to the people in Eastern Kentucky, where coal mining jobs are at the top of the list of priorities.

    Grimes will have the task of portraying McConnell as an establishment relic, the leader of the gridlock in Washington, and the puppet of the oil industry, who stands to gain personally, but will bring nothing back to Kentucky when he does. It will be a tough sell. Every McConnell opponent so far has tried that approach. So far, all have failed.

    But the stars are aligning a bit differently in this election than before. Despite Grimes’ need to assert her independence, there is little doubt that Democrat money will pour in to Kentucky over the next five months. Big Dem names will show up in the state, maybe even a Clinton.

    What Grimes knows is that Democrats outnumber Republicans in Kentucky by a margin of 57% to 37%. But that margin has still kept McConnell for 30 years. To win, she must be seen as her own woman, not Obama’s. She must walk the line that so many Democrat governors have walked to win in Kentucky. She must be seen as loyal to her state, not to the party.

    Grimes is already being peppered with specific questions aimed at determining her loyalties. For example, would she have voted for Obamacare, had she been in the Senate instead of McConnell at the time?

    Grimes says she will work to “fix Obamacare”. She knows that the ACA, while not popular as a concept in Kentucky, is nonetheless being used in huge waves, thanks to a program set up by Governor Steve Beshear that put the national ACA registry website to shame. She can’t say she likes Obamacare, but she can’t say she wants to get rid of it or never would have voted for it either.

    McConnell says he will continue to try to pull Obamacare out by the roots. Time will tell if Kentuckians still approve of his approach now that they are able to go see a doctor.

    Grimes has an uphill battle ahead of her. McConnell is an adept electioneer. The one sure thing is that Kentuckians are about to be deluged with big-money campaign ads from both sides.

    Image via Alison for Kentucky

  • Alison Lundergan Grimes Releases Her First General Election TV Ad

    Allison Lundergan Grimes locked-in the Democratic nomination for Kentucky’s senate seat on Tuesday. Now the candidate is starting her media blitz in earnest.

    Grimes’ campaign this week released the candidate’s first general election TV ad. Titled “A Moment” the ad does not feature the hand-shaking and flag-waving that characterizes many early campaign commercials. Instead, Grimes directly addresses voters, distancing herself from President Obama and pledging bipartisanship.

    “And no matter who the president is, I won’t answer to them, I’ll only answer to you,” said Grimes.

    Grimes will have a hard fight ahead of her against Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell, a Republican senator well-known for his fundraising and campaigning abilities. Grimes’ website announcement of the new ad shows that her campaign is taking McConnell seriously, with a Grimes spokesperson calling out McConnell directly as having “no intention of offering a plan for Kentucky’s future.”

    Voters in Kentucky are in for many (many) more ads throughout the summer and fall, as both Grimes and McConnell are amassing large campaign funds. With Grimes polling competitively with McConnell, the Democratic Party and its donors are smelling blood. Grimes is receiving massive support for her campaign in the hopes that she can topple one of the most well-placed and well-funded senators in office today.

    McConnell this week also won his primary race to become the Republican nominee for Kentucky’s senate seat. McConnell notched a solid win over his Tea Party-backed opponent, Matt Bevin, though the senator’s campaign did not take the challenger lightly.

    With the nomination safely in-hand, McConnell’s seasoned campaign staff can now focus on Grimes and the general election. McConnell’s campaign also released a new TV ad this week, one that is altogether more bombastic than Grimes’.

    Though the ad was directed toward primary voters, the ad does feature a pointed attack against Grimes. Around halfway through the ad a t-shirt depicting Grimes with President Obama and Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (and slyly associating her with the Reid quote “Coal makes us sick”) is shown. This demonstrates how McConnel’s campaign intends to portray Grimes to Kentuckians and is an early shot in a campaign war that is bound to get dirtier as election day approaches.

    Image via Youtube

  • Mitch McConnell Whips Tea Party Darling

    Mitch McConnell Whips Tea Party Darling

    Mitch McConnell, Senate Minority Leader and senior U.S. Senator from Kentucky, has successfully fended off a primary challenge from Tea Party hopeful Matt Bevin. This could be a significant harbinger of things to come for the Tea Party faction of the Grand Old Party.

    The last time the Tea Party rallied in Kentucky, it resulted in the primary election of Rand Paul over the Republican party’s candidate of choice at the time, Trey Grayson. Paul then went on to defeat Democrat Jack Conway in the general election, but not without a lot of “strange bedfellows” maneuvering between him and Mitch McConnell, whom he said he would never cut deals with.

    Some thought that Kentucky might again buck the party line and go with Matt Bevin over McConnell, but the Bevin campaign had a few setbacks to contend with.

    First of all, Bevin’s line of attack on McConnell was that he was not conservative enough, a common point with Tea Party primary challengers. He painted McConnell as “establishment” and even as cooperating with President Obama too often.

    The difficulty came when Bevin was discovered as having spoke approvingly of the TARP stimulus package. McConnell’s campaign moved immediately to portray Bevin as “giving Obama a blank check” by supporting TARP, which was signed into law by George W. Bush.

    Bevin fumbled for a response. A few more forced errors followed, but the final nail in the coffin came when proof surfaced that Bevin had attended a rally of pro-cockfighting supporters. He later expressed his opinion that the founding fathers were involved in cockfighting and dogfighting.

    Bevin’s candidacy was pretty much finished from that point, and McConnell turned his attention to his eventual general election challenger, Democrat Alison Lundergan Grimes. This further cemented the inevitability of his winning over Bevin, and the election day results backed up that assumption.

    McConnell, like most candidates in a scrappy primary, now asks that all Kentucky Republicans, including former Bevin supporters, rally behind him to defeat “Obama’s candidate”, as he calls Grimes. He is co-opting Grimes’ call for “change” — meaning to oust McConnell — by calling for change himself, meaning to keep him in Washington, elect a majority of Republicans to the Senate, and oust Harry Reid as Senate Majority Leader.

    Image via YouTube

  • Mitch McConnell Duke Faux Pas Leads to NCAA Probe

    When Josh Wolford told us yesterday about Mitch McConnell’s embarrassing campaign ad faux pas, the one with a shot of Duke basketball players where he obviously meant to show UK players, the joke train was working up a head of steam in Kentucky.

    McConnell’s presumptive Democrat opponent in the Senate race, Alison Grimes, tweeted out to everyone:

    “KY, as your next Senator, I promise to never glorify a Duke championship in a campaign ad like @Team_Mitch”

    And later that day:

    “Turns out @Team_Mitch has been in DC for so long he can’t tell the difference between UK & Duke basketball.”

    Team Mitch saw that they were in deep doo-doo and moved to fix the screw-up, only to cause another problem the very same day.

    According to WFPL in Louisville, McConnell’s campaign replaced the Duke footage, as short as it was, with a clip of UK’s Julius Randle. The trouble is, they never asked permission to use that footage, and the act raised questions with the NCAA since Randle is still in college.

    In the end, the NCAA had to address the issue, leading to the University sending Team Mitch a cease and desist letter and issuing the following statement.

    “The University of Kentucky consulted with the NCAA earlier today regarding footage of Julius Randle in a Mitch McConnell advertisement. Although the use of the student-athlete’s image in the advertisement is not permissible, because it was done without the knowledge or permission of the university or the student-athlete, it is not an NCAA violation. The University of Kentucky has sent a cease and desist letter and will continue to take appropriate measures to ensure improper usage of a student-athlete’s name, image or likeness is prevented.”

    So, why was Mitch McConnell scrambling to fix a split-second clip showing Duke anyway?

    Ever since the 1992 NCAA Tournament, UK and Duke have been mortal enemies. If you aren’t familiar with the cause, let me fill you in, especially since it relates to current politics in Kentucky, and even the U.S.

    It was the 1992 NCAA East Regional Finals. The Elite Eight. Duke vs. Kentucky. It was a battle to go to the Final Four. Coach Mike Krzyzewski vs. Coach Rick Pitino.

    UK was 12 points down in the second half and came back to tie the game with 33.6 seconds left. The game goes into overtime. After what seemed like an hour of OT play, Kentucky is up 103-102. Until… The Shot.

    Kentuckians don’t talk about The Shot. And, anytime they do, it is followed with a spit and a curse. In Wildcat Country, it is like the death of JFK. Every single UK fan old enough to know about that game remembers exactly where they were when it happened.

    Wildcat fans are not sore losers about that game. What enrages them is that they feel Laettner should have been ejected for stomping on Aminu Timberlake earlier in that same game. It was a vicious, purposeful thing to do, and Laettner has admitted to waiting for his moment to do it.

    This event is so deeply rooted in the psyche of UK fans, and is passed along to the next generation, that the UPS company, which has distribution operations in Kentucky, caught hell when they featured “The Shot” in ads during March Madness in 2012.

    McConnell knows this, and rushed to fix the error, only to step in more trouble. It will be interesting to see where else his opponents take this one, including Tea Party primary challenger, Matt Bevin.

    Image via YouTube

  • Mitch McConnell Ad Hits YouTube with Duke Championship Footage

    A new ad for Senator Mitch McConnell’s reelection campaign hit YouTube today, and it features one of the most egregious errors that a politician can make in the state of Kentucky: glorifying Duke basketball.

    For about a second, the new ad shows Duke’s Jon Scheyer and Lance Thomas embracing after winning the 2010 National Championship. If you remember, that’s when Duke knocked off the number 8-seeded Butler.

    Here’s the ad:

    UPDATE: Removed, of course. Joe Sonka grabbed it though. Thanks, Joe:

    UPDATE 2: The ad is back up, but with an edit–a still of Julius Randle where the Duke clip used to be. Also, comments have been turned off for this video. Comments aren’t turned off on Team Mitch’s previous ads. I guess they’re fearing the wrath of Big Blue Nation?

    And since it’s bound to come down once Team Mitch realizes their grievous error, here’s a screenshot:

    That’s not UK, Senator.

    It’s clear that Team Mitch simply mistook the blue & white of Duke for the blue & white of Kentucky-considering the frame right before the offending one featured a Louisville slam dunk (we see where they were going with it).

    But holy hell, what a mistake! And during Tournament time?

    UPDATE 3: A Team Mitch spokesperson has commented on the ad, according to WFPL (Louisville)’s Phillip M. Bailey:

    UPDATE 4: Mitch McConnell’s campaign team has pulled the revised ad featuring Julius Randle as well.

    [h/t Joe Sonka]

  • Roger Daltrey, of The Who, Performs at US Capitol

    This Wednesday, Congressional leaders such as John Boehner, Nancy Pelosi, Mitch McConnell, and Harry Reid convened at the Capitol Building in order to conduct business of the utmost importance – dedicating a statue to Winston Churchill.

    In 2011, to mark the 70th anniversary of Churchill’s address to Congress in December of 1941 (after the bombing of Pearl Harbor), John Boehner passed a resolution to add a bust of “The British Bulldog” to the Capitol Building. The bust was donated by the Churchill Center.

    Churchill was such an amazing figure in history that it wouldn’t be enough to simply give him a bust placed in the nation’s capitol; In order to really make the occasion special, John Boehner thought it fitting to invite Roger Daltrey to perform at the dedication ceremony – you know, the lead singer of Tho Who.

    Why did Boehner choose Daltrey to pay tribute to Churchill? Perhaps because they are both British royalty…. Or more likely because John Boehner is a fanboy. Whatever the reason, the appearance of Daltrey was enough to allow Democrats and Republicans to drop their feuds and become bipartisan, for once.

    During the ceremony, Boehner also expressed his intense crush on Winston Churchill. According to NPR, Boehner appeared to stifle back tears as he spoke on the importance of Churchill to the United States: “Growing up, he read our books. He revered Lincoln. He knew better than most Americans the trials of the Civil War. He even wrote in our magazines on everything from hospitality to food to our engines. You could say that he saw in America the very exceptionalism that we see today.”

    Following his opening remarks for the ceremony, Boehner introduced Roger Daltrey to the crowd to play two songs. The first was Ben E. King’s, “Stand By Me,” a song Daltrey chose to represent the special relationship between the United States and Great Britain. The second was The Who’s hit, “Won’t Get Fooled Again,” a choice which Daltrey stated, “…was very pertinent to the occasion. Isn’t it pretty obvious?”

    While Daltrey may think his choice of songs was quite obvious, the purpose of the ceremony seems a bit perplexing. This year marks no significant anniversary of Churchill’s interactions with the United States, nor have any specific developments happened to strengthen the ties between Great Britain the United States. Not only that, but it would seem as if Congressional members and Secretary of State John Kerry would have more pressing issues to attend to than the dedication of a bust. Then again, maybe this private concert by one member of The Who was the spark needed to create a bipartisan legislature. After all, according to Senator Pat Leahy (D – Vt.), “It doesn’t get any better… I love that song but hearing it live in here — nothing could top that.”

    Image via YouTube

  • Senate Votes Against Fourth House Plan

    Senate Votes Against Fourth House Plan

    In a completely non-startling move, the Senate voted against a fourth plan put forth by the House to defund Obamacare in order to stop the government shutdown.

    The deadline to actually avoid the shutdown came at midnight last night. When America woke up this morning, it realized that Congress was still plagued by ineptitude, and the government had indeed shutdown.

    Despite failing to convince the Senate to defund the Affordable Care Act (An act that became law in 2010.) 3 previous times, House Republicans believed that a fourth effort would be successful if they only included a negotiating committee to reach a compromise with the healthcare law.

    The Senate voted 54-46 against approving the House bill, straight down party lines. Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid stated that the Senate was willing to talk negotiations with the bill, but not “with a gun to our head.”

    In even more fantastically antagonistic rhetoric, Reid said that today was “a good day for anarchists” in the House of Representatives, and that “Speaker Boehner and his band of Tea Party radicals, they have done the unthinkable. They have shut down the federal government. For us, that’s hard to comprehend as being good. For them, they like it.”

    Many Democratic leaders, such as Senator Dick Durbin (D – Il.) have voiced the opinion that they would be willing to talk numbers regarding the ACA and compromise on certain aspects, but that they would not vote to defund the law. The main issue on which Democrats are willing to negotiate is a tax on medical devices, something that could save $30 billion in lost revenue over 10 years.

    Despite the fact that Obamacare is not directly tied to federal funding, many radical Republicans and Tea Party members insists that its defunding is the key to creating a sustainable US budget. Republican Representative Todd Rokita, of Indiana, even went as far as to say that the Affordable Care Act is the “is the most insidious law known to man,” without stating why, of course.

    Because of the lack of political responsibility in DC, 800,000 government employees will be furloughed, hundreds of government institutions will be closed, and the United States could lose around $55 billion if the issue isn’t resolved in 3-4 weeks.

    While the rhetoric of Harry Reid is great in its incendiary nature (Here is another one: “Albert Einstein said when defining insanity as follows, quote, ‘Doing the same thing over and over again and thinking you’re going to get a different result. Einstein was a genius, but it doesn’t take a genius to figure out that the proof is watching the House Republicans, because they’ve lost their minds.”), the rhetoric of John Boehner and Mitch McConnell is just as interesting.

    Boehner stated “How can we give waivers and breaks to all the big union guys out there? How do we give breaks to all the big businesses out there, and yet stick our constituents with a bill they don’t want and a bill they can’t afford?” Except for the fact that the Affordable Care Act was passed as a law in 2010, meaning that a majority of Congress voted in favor of the law, and despite the fact that no proof has been given as to the fact that constituents cannot afford it, seeing as the bill has yet to be implemented (and the fact that it is designed to save Americans money over the long-run).

    Mitch McConnell’s words of wisdom are just as ignorant, stating that “They’ve now said they won’t even agree to sit down and work out our differences. They won’t even talk about it. They literally just voted against working out a compromise.” What McConnell fails to recognize is that there is nothing to compromise about – As Obama himself has stated, via his Twitter account, “The Affordable Care Act is moving forward. You can’t shut it down.”

    The President is exactly right. Regardless of whether or not the government is shutdown, the Affordable Care Act is slated to take effect in 2014. Applications to apply for the program opened today. The Republicans are not going to make progress attempting to stop a law that has already been voted and agreed upon, and has been deemed Constitutional by the Supreme Court. Instead, they should focus their efforts on defunding some other inane government expenditure. Perhaps some portion of the monstrous Defense budget…? Just a suggestion.

    Image via Twitter

  • Mitch McConnell & Ted Cruz: How Do We Defund Obamacare?

    Mitch McConnell & Ted Cruz: How Do We Defund Obamacare?

    The Washington Examiner reported on Monday that Kentucky Senator and Republican Minority Leader Mitch McConnell said that he would not support Senators Ted Cruz and Mike Lee in their efforts to filibuster a resolution that would defund Obamacare. Consequently, because House Republicans sponsored the resolution that Cruz and Lee want to filibuster, a distinct possibility exists that the government will shut down by next week.

    The filibuster efforts weren’t helped by Minority Whip John Cornyn, who joined McConnell in siding against Cruz and Lee. The move is politically unusual, mostly because McConnell, Cornyn, Cruz, and Lee all want the same thing: funding for the government, but no funding for Obamacare.

    The Wall Street Journal reported McConnell saying, “I just don’t happen to think filibustering a bill that defunds Obamacare is the best route to defunding Obamacare. All it does is shut down the government and keep Obamacare funded. And none of us want that.”

    McConnell believes that the final vote, scheduled by Harry Reid for today, would be the primary test of Democrats going face-to-face with an unenthusiastic electorate. “If five Senate Democrats vote against the Majority Leader, Obamacare will be defunded. That’s a vote we should want to have,” McConnell said.

    Across the aisle, Democratic Majority Leader Harry Reid charged Republicans to back down and give up fighting a law that was passed three years ago. Reid went on to suggest that if a government shutdown takes place, Republicans will be to blame. Then, he quoted Confucius: “When an anger rises, think of the consequences… It is time to stop obsessing over old battles.”

    A spokesman for the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee, Matt Canter, told the Wall Street Journal that McConnell is fighting an uphill battle against both parties. “Mitch McConnell is terrified of Ted Cruz and the tea party… Regardless of his rhetoric, voters know that McConnell is the reason for gridlock and dysfunction in Washington, and if there is a shutdown, he will shoulder the blame,” Canter said.

    If you’re interested in reading quotes from other politicians about the filibuster, Fox News collected some from the talk show circuit.

    [Image via a YouTube video of McConnell trashing Harry Reid]

  • Harry Reid, Reconvenes Senate Early, Files Syria Rez

    Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid started forward momentum in Congress this weekend toward possible military intervention in Syria. The Democratic Senator from Nevada briefly reconvened his colleagues on Friday to file a resolution authorizing President Barack Obama’s desired military strikes in Syria. Congress was not set to resume until Monday.

    The Senate Foreign Relations Committee already approved a resolution on action last week; allowing it for up to 90 days but prohibiting boots-on-the-ground troops, which Obama had originally promised would not be required.

    Three of the “Big Four” congressional leaders have come out in favor of the White House’s resolution: Reid, Speaker of the House John Boehner and House Democratic leader Nancy Pelosi.

    The apparent unknown on the Hill is Senate Republican leader Mitch McConnell. McConnell, facing a rocky bid at re-election in Kentucky, has gone on record after being briefed by the President on Tuesday (seen above) as saying, “Congress and our constituents would all benefit from knowing more about what it is he thinks needs to be done—and can be accomplished—in Syria and the region.” The Kentucky Senator is being fired upon himself for not having come out on one side or the other of the debate; the Senator’s social media presence last posted on 5 September about Obamacare.

    Next Wednesday—which will mark 21 days from the chemical attacks in Syria on 21 August—is the anticipated procedural vote on the issue and Reid is trying to bolster support among Democrats for the President’s plan; White House officials are frantically doing the same. In the Senate, 60 votes would be required to bypass any procedural hiccups.

    When addressing indications that Representatives and Senators increasingly seem to be opposed to the President’s initiative, White House Chief of Staff, Denis R. McDonough said on Friday, “It’s too early to jump to any conclusions on where the House or the Senate is.”

    Tuesday night is scheduled as Obama’s chance to make his case to the public. Polls still reveal that the majority of Americans are opposed to military strikes, albeit limited.

    As per usual, a conglomeration of politicians, informed commentators and the peanut gallery are posting their opinions for all to see…

    Want to hear from the peace-mongering celebs you’re used to seeing pop up in times like these? Sean Penn and others have been notably silent on the topic. Don’t worry though, Madonna has raised her iconic voice amid the silence (or rather her Facebook); she opposes military intervention in Syria.

    [Image via White House Official Blog.]

  • Mitch McConnell Will Face Tea Party Challenger

    Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell had hoped to be able to sail through the upcoming primary season unimpeded by any challenge from within his own party, leaving him to face off with a full war chest against likely Democrat nominee Alison Lundergan Grimes. According to Kentucky newspapers, today that hope was snuffed.

    Investment manager and Tea Party activist Matt Bevin of Louisville threw his hat into the ring with an announcement that he would take on “mud-slinging Mitch”, a man he says is no longer in touch with what conservatives want.

    While McConnell has aimed a continuous salvo of ads at Grimes that link her to President Obama’s policies, Bevin does the same to McConnell accusing him of voting for higher taxes, bailouts, debt ceiling increases, congressional pay raises and liberal judges.

    McConnell’s modus operandi so far has been to use the considerable wealth at his disposal to level early attacks at anyone rumored to oppose him. He ran ads aimed at actress and activist Ashley Judd when she was considering a run against him. Then against Grimes long before she announced. And now, even before Bevin’s announcement, McConnell leveled charges that the Louisville businessman received a $200,000 taxpayer bailout for companies he owns in Connecticut and said that Bevin did not pay taxes on them. The ads call him “Bailout Bevin”.

    Bevins denies any tax problems, and retorts that McConnell is from Alabama.

    Grimes’ campaign adviser, Jonathan Hurst, pointed out how quick McConnell was to attack Bevin.

    “Kentuckians are frustrated by Mitch McConnell’s lack of leadership, so it should be no surprise that he’s turned to bullying members of his own party,” Hurst said.

    “This is simply the latest in McConnell’s political games and demonstrates just how out of touch he is with Kentucky families.”

  • Mitch McConnell Creates Auto-Tuned Attack Ad

    Mitch McConnell, who has been the Senator representing our great state of Kentucky since 2006, might finally be unseated in the next election and he’s scared. So scared, in fact, that he released an attack ad against Alison Lundergen Grimes barely two minutes after she announced she was running against him.

    While it’s catchy enough, you can tell it was put together hastily; the whole thing is riddled with typos, and McConnell’s own name is misspelled at one point, which begs the question: what’s more important, a fast attack-ad or a good attack ad? Kentuckians will soon be inundated with the mud-slinging, so I’m gonna go with the latter.

    Check out the video below.

  • Mitch McConnell Celebrates Gun Control Defeat with Flippant Facebook ‘Meme’

    As you’ve probably heard by now, gun control legislation that would ban certain types of military-style assault rifles, limit magazine sizes, and enact more far-reaching background checks for buyers failed in the Senate on Wednesday. We already knew what was going to happen with most of the proposals, but the latter one concerning expanded background checks was up in the air until yesterday.

    Although polls show a substantial (90% according to some) support for this measure among Americans, the Senate was unable to pass it through.

    President Obama called it a “pretty shameful day for Washington.” You know all of that. Ok.

    Well, it appears that Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY) is basking in his victory with Facebook memes.

    Here’s what was posted to the official Mitch McConnell Facebook page in the aftermath of the vote. It shows Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-NV) asking for some “gun control,” being denied by McConnell, and in the end hanging his head in defeat.

    “We love the memes you send us! Keep them coming!” reads the post. So it looks like a supporter created the 5-panel graphic and Team McConnell decided to share it with their 32,000+ followers.

    “Shame on you! You have sold out on the children of Newtown,” says one commenter.

    “Shame on every senator who voted against background checks–supported by 90% of Americans. Do you represent us or the NRA?” says another.

    The post is generating a lot of buzz with over 3,000 shares and over 5.600 comments. Team McConnell has a history of using the Facebook page to generate support with memes (just take a look at their past activity), but it seems they may have stepped in it here by posting such a flippant gloat over an issue which many Americans would consider of grave importance.

  • Ashley Judd Posing A Threat To Mitch McConnell

    Ashley Judd, who is more well known for her acting career and famous family than she is her political stance, is rumored to be considering running for Kentucky senate against heavyweight Mitch McConnell, who has been in the game a long time now. As one of the most influential people in Washington, it’s difficult to imagine him being threatened by someone who hasn’t even confirmed she’ll be running, but it certainly seems that way.

    Judd recently attended a dinner party in Louisville that had an impressive guest list, including Congressman John Yarmuth, Louisville mayor Greg Fischer, former Kentucky Democratic Party Chairman Jonathan Miller, waterfront development Director David Karem, and Mary Moss Greenbaum, founder and producer of the Kentucky Author Forum. And although she’s said she won’t make a final decision regarding her participation in the senate race until Derby Day (May 6th), her recent activities seem to indicate she’s thinking hard about going for it.

    Campaign reps for McConnell recently released a new ad which takes on Obama, Judd, and a slew of other potential senate candidates in an attempt to make them look silly. It’s classic mudslinging, but some are wondering why McConnell is so threatened by Judd in particular.

    Of course, the attacks could be because they view her as just another “Hollywood liberal”, an easy target who was born in Kentucky but lives in Tennessee and even nominated President Obama as a representative of the state. Either way, many Democrats seem to think Judd has a real chance of unseating McConnell, such as former party chairman Jonathan Miller.

    “These days there’s nobody who’s more of a symbol of Washington than McConnell. She would be wise to avoid left versus right and talk inside versus outside,” Miller said. “Going against the ultimate insider is a real asset in this anti-Washington [state].”


  • Cybersecurity Act Of 2012 Killed In The Senate

    The Senate had until tomorrow to vote on the Cybersecurity Act of 2012. The amendments that were being proposed suggested that we may be onto something decent here. Unfortunately, or fortunately depending on how you look at it, we’re not going to have a cybersecurity bill this year.

    The Senate voted this morning to kill the CSA. According to The Hill, the bill only needed 60 votes to move forward with the legislation. It only received 52 votes with 46 voting to kill the bill as it stands. It’s essentially the final nail in the coffin for all the cybersecurity bills that were proposed this year.

    Depending on how you stand, this is actually good news. It means that the Senate won’t be rushing a bill out the door this year just to get some kind of cybersecurity law on the book. Hopefully this will give the Senate and House time to properly prepare a better bill that takes the concerns of the privacy-minded citizens into consideration.

    Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell attributed the defeat of the bill to Senate Majority Leader, Harry Reid. McConnell said that he recognizes the need for better cybersecurity, but said that the CSA was not properly thought out. He accused Reid of trying to “steam roll the bill.”

    Reid blamed the failed passage on the Republicans and lack of support from the Chamber of Commerce. The Chamber of Commerce has been against the bill from the start because it didn’t provide ample protection for businesses. Sen. John McCain suggested that any future bills have more input from the business community.

    It’s clear that the bill failed because we’re in an election year. If the bill were to be proposed next year in the exact same manner, I think it would at least go up for a vote. The fact that both sides are vying for votes through political grandstanding instead of focusing on the actual bills means that not much is going to get done.

    We’ll continue to follow the trials and tribulations of bills that affect the Internet, but don’t expect much news for the rest of the year. We’ll probably see the bill brought up again in some form in January of next year.

  • Mitch McConnell On PIPA: Put It On Ice

    Wednesday’s internet-wide SOPA / PIPA protests, by many measures, were greatly successful. Google said that on that day alone, 4.5 million people signed their homepage petition against the legislation – and that number grew by millions on Thursday. The social media world generated a substantial amount of buzz for the protests as well: Twitter reported that over 2.4 million tweets about SOPA / PIPA were floating around the Twittersphere from 12 am to 4 pm Wednesday.

    And Congressional support for the legislation has waned. The supporter/opponent chart available on tracking site SOPA Opera has literally inverted since before the protests. It currently stands at 26 supporters and 100 opponents (with both bodies combines)

    On that note, another key member of the Senate has voiced concern about PIPA. Senate Republican leader Mitch McConnell said:


    While we must combat the on-line theft of intellectual property, current proposals in Congress raise serious legal, policy and operational concerns. Rather than prematurely bringing the Protect IP Act to the Senate floor, we should first study and resolve the serious issues with this legislation. Considering this bill without first doing so could be counterproductive to achieving the shared goal of enacting appropriate and additional tools to combat the theft of intellectual property. I encourage the Senate Majority to reconsider its decision to proceed to this bill

    McConnell’s statement injects some partisanship into things and while it is definitely no “kill the bill” battle cry, it does suggest that public outrage against the legislation has forced even the top Republican Senator in the land to seriously rethink the measure.

    A procedural vote on PIPA is scheduled for Tuesday and with any luck, it won’t hit the floor next week.

    PIPA’s House of Representative cousin SOPA has lost much more support in the past couple of days than PIPA has, so we’ll have to wait and see if enough support remains to bring it back up later. SOPA was delayed earlier this week, but author Lamar Smith said that markup of the act will resume in February.

    [Lead Image Via Facebook]