Running Scared

From the looks of it, Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY) is feeling anxious about his chances of winning reelection at the end of his current term.

The distinct smell of desperation began to hover over Team McConnell as recently as last December, when McConnell chose to begin attacking Ashley Judd before she had even thrown her hat into the ring:

http://www.nydailynews.com/news/politics/mcconnell-preempt-judd-senate-challenge-article-1.1225237

Hypothetical polling at the time had placed Judd, a Hollywood actress with little or no political experience, slightly ahead of McConnell, whose job performance had sunk to 37%.

Now there's evidence that McConnell is trying to get away with misleading the public about the IRS "scandal" in order to whip Kentucky voters into a frenzy:

“Again and again, this administration and its allies have used the resources of the government itself to intimidate and silence those that oppose it,” McConnell says. “I think that the leader of the free world and his advisers have better things to do than to dig through other people’s tax returns.”

The ad ends with a quote from Obama, where he seems to admit to punishing opponents of his administration: “We’re going to punish our enemies, and we’re going to reward our friends.” But this is an out-of-context quote, pulled from a comment made more than two years ago in an interview with Univision radio. “If Latinos sit out the election instead of, ‘we’re going to punish our enemies and we’re going to reward our friends who stand with us on issues that are important to us’ – if they don’t see that kind of upsurge in voting in this election, then I think it’s going to be harder,” Obama said in that interview. McConnell’s use of the quote is the dishonest capstone to an intensely dishonest piece of political rhetoric.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/plum-line/wp/2013/05/29/michele-bachmann-is-gone-but-her-paranoid-politics-will-live-on/

Luckily for those of us who actually care about the truth, Jamelle Bouie of the Washington Post caught McConnell's misrepresentation. Obama never said that he was going to "punish his enemies"; he was speaking of the effect that Democratic apathy would have on the past election.

Recent polling indicates that McConnell is currently tied with a Democrat who hasn't yet entered the race:

http://politicalwire.com/archives/2013/05/28/grimes_would_give_mcconnell_strong_challenge.html

I can't tell you how much pleasure it gives me to see Mitch McConnell squirm over his reelection chances. Of all the various Representatives and Senators that currently "grace" our nation's Capitol, McConnell is the Congressman that I dislike the most. He has made a career out of being a naysaying, obstructionist, angry old man, and the Senate would benefit from his ouster.

If you have been following my political musings here or on Facebook, you are likely aware that I have spent a lot of time complaining about Republican obstructionism in Congress. The face of that cynical, do-nothing obstructionism is none other than McConnell, who has decided to simply throw a hissy fit over the past five years because he didn't get his man in office in 2008. Now it seems that karma from the past couple of years is finally coming back to bite McConnell in the ass.

And as they often say: karma's a bitch.