Poor Mitch

(Editorial cartoon by Joel Pett / Lexington Herald-Leader (July 7, 2013) and featured at McClatchy DC.)

Poor Mitch McConnell.  It doesn't look like he will be facing a Tea Party challenger for his senate seat, but there will be a Democratic challenger, one who has already won a state-wide election and one who is a "girl."

From the Louisville Courier-Journal:

The race between U.S. Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell and Secretary of State Alison Lundergan Grimes appears to be on.

That’s despite Grimes’ odd rollout of a campaign that apparently wasn’t really a rollout. The real rollout will come later, we’re told. ...

An official campaign rollout done right — particularly if it includes the Big Dog, former President Bill Clinton, the last Democrat to carry Kentucky in a federal election of any kind and a close friend of the Lundergan family — would go a long way toward making people forget Grimes’ announcement.

The GOP’s harping on the rollout could, in fact, show that it has an even bigger problem — an opponent who hasn’t taken many positions and therefore doesn’t have much of an Achilles’ heel.

McConnell’s campaign team acknowledged as much during the infamous strategy meeting recorded by activist Curtis Morrison when a presenter said doing opposition research against her was like looking for “a needle in a haystack.”

The main things they found about her are that she supported the Democratic Party platform in 2008 and that she endorsed President Barack Obama for re-election in 2012, but according to the presenter was “too smart to use his name.”   [Emphasis added]

The lengthy article this excerpt comes from is actually quite dismissive of Alison Grimes and takes more than a few pot-shots at her rather aimless announcement.  Still, it does note that she holds a state office and is friendly with the Clintons.  If Bill shows up to help her campaign, it should help considerably.

Here is a good case for Howard Dean's "50-State Strategy."  If the Dems want to be rid of McConnell, "Mr. Turtle Man," and they certainly should, then pouring some money into her campaign would be money well-spent.

No, she probably won't be another Elizabeth Warren or Kirsten Gillebrand.  What she will be, however, is not Mitch McConnell and not a Republican.  We could use that in the Senate.