How Do You Soften the Image of a Stone-cold Liar Like Senator McConnell?

Alan Rappeport published an article titled McConnell Softens Image in the Homestretch.

My question, after thirty years of living with him as my senator, was: how do you soften a stone-cold, heartless, liar who should have been a one-term senator? Of course, I was curious enough to read the article. 

Usually, I consider it my civic duty to dissect Senator McConnell’s words for his supporters since they willingly relinquished critical thinking skills years ago. This time, I am gong to dissect Alan Rappeport’s words about Senator McConnell. 

The rhetorical gunfight in Kentucky’s Senate race seems to have been holstered, for the moment.

Nice. Sadly, Alison Grimes set herself up to be the butt of this joke with her ridiculous ad in which she uses a gun to shoot the enthusiasm out of this supporter. It’s very hard to keep the momentum going when I have to apologize for my candidate’s position, or for what I consider a dangerous decision. I hate guns, the NRA, and most people who support them. However, even though this would have been a game changer for me in the primary, she is still the much better choice. So much so that I don’t even have to consider this voting for the lesser of two evils. 

With midterm elections a little more than a month away, Senator Mitch McConnell is going positive.

Not quite true, Mr. Rappeport. Senator McConnell is putting out ads that might appear positive to you. The truth is, they are packed with lies. You would know this if you had checked his record. And there is nothing positive about lies. 

A new one-minute ad features how a grandfatherly Mr. McConnell, the Republican facing the Democratic challenger Alison Lundergan Grimes, helped to retrieve a young girl who had been abducted by her father and taken to Mali.

Picking nits here but this is one kinda-sorta-positive ad. That doesn't qualify going positive in my book. 

Grandfatherly is a strange way to see him. Have you ever tried to Google information about his actual grandchildren? If so, you probably ended up on my blog, and left disappointed. Grounds for Divorce   and On Behalf of My Grandchildren,Senator McConnell, I Share My Pain With You are two of the most popular entries on my McConnell blog and, sadly for those Googling to find out about his family, neither has anything to do with his divorce or grandchildren. If there is anything out there about his daughters or their children, I haven’t seen it. If they have ever stood on the stage to support him, I missed it. If they acknowledge him, it will be a surprise to me. 

There’s a young man in my community who says he was once an officer in a local young Republican group. He was excited to see Senator McConnell on an airplane and approached to introduce himself as an officer of the group. Senator McConnell didn’t bother to look up from his newspaper. So, anyone who has done their homework knows there is nothing warm and fuzzy or grandfatherly about Senator McConnell. He doesn’t even appear sincere in the photo-ops that are supposed to make him seem like a nice guy.

 

The girl’s mother, Noelle Hunter, said that Mr. McConnell worked with the State Department and the government of Mali to secure her daughter’s safety.

It was his job to do that. Any examples where he helped people when it wasn’t his job? 

“He cared about me and my children when other people didn’t,” Ms. Hunter said, recalling that Mr. McConnell even met them at the airport upon her daughter’s return. “Mitch never stopped fighting for us.”

I’m very happy for Ms. Hunter and her family. This is a wonderful story. But, I don’t believe, and I doubt anyone else believes, that other people didn’t care. The difference might be that Senator McConnell was in a position to pick up a phone and direct others to get this done. I would have done the same in that position as I’m sure most people reading this would have. Alison Grimes will do the same. The fact that a senator did this is not unusual. What matters here is that Senator McConnell has proven, repeatedly, that he cares very little about his constituents, about veterans nationwide, about unemployed and underemployed nationwide, about the middle class nationwide, about poverty nationwide, about education nationwide . . .   

The upbeat ad, which makes no mention of Ms. Grimes, follows a summer of sparring between the candidates on everything from President Obama’s health law to how to hold a gun.

Senator McConnell has made no mention of Secretary Grimes ever. He habitually lets his POTUS envy show by only talking about President Obama, as though he is running against him. He is an embarrassment when he says that Secretary Grimes will be a rubber stamp for President Obama, since President Obama will only be in office two of the six years of her first term, and especially since he was a rubber stamp for George Bush. 

Mr. McConnell’s poll numbers appear to have stabilized in recent weeks, and the Senate minority leader looks ready to show his softer side.

Sure. If you call circling the drain stable. He’s ready to show off, though. I’ll give Mr. Rappeport that much.

Let's Talk About Legacy, Senator McConnell

Dear Senator McConnell:

Legacy:  something transmitted by or received from an ancestor or predecessor or from the past legacy of the ancient philosophers>

Thirty years is a long enough pattern to become legacy. When looking at your thirty years in office and focusing, as most people will, on the years since 2007 when you became the Minority Leader in the Senate, your legacy should not make you (or your children and grandchildren who will have to live with it) proud. You will be remembered mostly for your vow to make President Obama a one-term President, with no concern for how badly your attempts to do that harmed the residents of Kentucky, the nation, and the world. You will also be remembered for your pork, which you bragged about for years until your party decided it was a terrible, horrible, must-be-stopped-and-criticized-forever activity. Your filibuster record, including the fact that you are the only Senator to filibuster his own bill, will most surely brighten up a few history classes.

Regardless of the something a voter considers important, you have left the majority of us with less than we had before – exactly like the parent who dies and leaves his children with more overdue bills than assets.

We have fewer jobs. People work harder for lower wages, and each dollar buys less than it did when you came into office. Many people lost their homes and their health care, and are unable to feed themselves and their families. When given an opportunity to vote for something that helps, you consistently refuse to help. Even if it were true that the majority were doing better (and that is not true), ignoring the people who are hurting the worst is inexcusable. Inhumane disregard for those in need will be your legacy. I will help keep that legacy alive for you as long as I can and then ask my grandchildren to continue for me.

Unfortunately for you, regardless of party affiliation/registration, most of us would say we have lost rights during your leadership. Your side screams about being persecuted Christians who are no longer able to pray in school and plaster the commandments they can’t remember on every public space so they’ll never forget to ignore them in public. They mourn the fact that their party has not delivered the theocracy they want, that big brother is watching over home-grown terrorist groups/militias, that they might possibly be close to losing the right to be armed and ready to kill in the grocery and daycare. They are fearful that they might be forced to work somewhere that won’t cause them to have black lung, and that a same-sex couple will get married and cause their spouses to abandon them. Both sides are angry about feeling spied on. Failure to protect our rights will be your legacy (Remember

The Protect America Act and Legislation Related to the Domestic Surveillance Program

which you introduced but tried to squirrel away from?).

You are in a no-win legacy position, Senator. Your destruction makes you a loser from my proud liberal perspective. The fact that you didn’t destroy this country quite enough makes you unpopular on your own side. If I were you, I’d wish I had been a one-term Senator.

You still have a month to change all of this. You could admit the truth, apologize, and resign. I would remember you quite differently and bet others would, too.

If not for yourself, you might want to consider your party. If, by chance, you care about anything other than yourself. In the thirty years that you have been in office, your party has been circling the bowl. Making that last-ditch-effort change might encourage others in your party to do the same before the final flush. (Food for thought doesn’t really work here, but you get the idea.)

This is what a winning legacy looks like: Ted Kennedy   

Sandy