Mitch McConnell's losing battle

The GOP's greatest fear is the success of Obamacare. Make no mistake, it will succeed over time. Indeed it's already surpassing expectations in the states where Democratic governors are actively trying to make it work. In fact, one of the biggest success stories so far is Kentucky, which brings us to Mitch McConnell's Obamacare nightmare:

As minority leader, and an in-cycle candidate with a primary challenger, he has to be leading the vanguard of Affordable Care Act opposition. But as a Kentucky senator, and a candidate with a general election opponent, he will soon be running on a platform of taking insurance away from tens, if not hundreds, of thousands of his own constituents.

Republicans went all in on anti-Obamacare arglebargle bullshit. Now they're racing the clock, working like mad to sabotage it before the electorate realizes they're better off with Obamacare than no reform at all. The GOP have pinned their strategy on raw hate and scurrilous lies. Thanks to a compliant insider press desperate for daily outrage, (real or invented), GOPers have been winning the day but even the rubes are beginning to see through their perfidy. We may actually live to see McConnell lose his cozy sinecure. Wouldn't that be something?

House passes Protect Predatory Insurers Act

John Boehner's House of Dysfunction passed a bill protecting junk health insurance with a convenient side effect of slow motion undermining the very core of health insurance reform. House GOPers rejected an amendment to protect consumers brought forward by the Democrats. They objected to this language as not being germane to their bill.

The amendment proposed in the motion to recommit in pertinent part requires state insurance commissioners to examine notices of health insurance cancellations or conversions. It also addresses the regulation of health insurance rates, specifically the amendment delineates what would constitute inadequate notice of cancellation or conversions of health insurance coverage and directs state insurance commissioners to investigate such cases of inadequate notice. Additionally, it permits the Secretary of Health and Human Services or the relevant state insurance regulator to take corrective actions if health insurance rates are determined to be excessive, unjustified, or discriminatory….

Translated: If insurance corporations are allowed to sell junk policies, there have to submit to regulatory review if they cancel the policies when people actually get sick and they won't be allowed to indiscriminately price gouge. You'll recall President's Obama's fix also required the insurers to clearly state the limits of the policies and make the consumer aware they had other options on public exchanges.

Well the Republicans won't stand for that. It completely ruins their plan to destroy all and any reforms that interfere with insurance corporation's profits. Even more depressing, 39 Democrats crossed over and voted for the GOP's malicious fakery in a vain attempt to dodge Republican attack ads. As if the dark money frontmen of the GOP won't still pour millions into taking their seats.

A word to those 39 spineless idiots. If you have "D" after your name, you own Obamacare. The good and the bad. The rubes in your district aren't going to be impressed by your cowardly caving into the GOPers thuggery. They'll only respect you if you stand up and fight. Every Democrat should be refusing to countenance the GOP's trickery and holding press conferences on the Capitol steps every day blasting the GOP's perfidy instead of kowtowing to Republican demagoguery.

[Big thanks to Michael J.W. Stickings of The Reaction (Twitter: @mjwstickings) for kindly linking in at Mike's Blog Round Up]

Terms of impeachment

Oklahoma Republican Sen. Tom Coburn dangles impeachment to soothe the angry base at a home district speaking event.

“No, I agree,” Coburn said. “My little wiggle out of that when I get that written to me is I believe that needs to be evaluated and determined, but thank goodness it doesn’t have to happen in the Senate until they’ve brought charges in the House. Those are serious things, but we’re in a serious time. I don’t have the legal background to know if that rises to high crimes and misdemeanor, but I think they’re getting perilously close.”

Translation: Happy to feed your impeachment fever. Get back to me when John Boehner's House of Dysfunction gets their shit together.

A year ago I would have laughed derisively at the notion the GOPers would try for it. Thing is, they won't be able to pretend they can kill Obamacare for the next three years and all their other faux scandals are falling apart. They're going to need a new chew toy for the rubes to gnaw on and the angry base loves them the taste of impeachment.

Let their freak flag fly high

I don't suppose the baby Jebus loves me enough to let this happen. Responding to a birther's question at a town hall a Texas Congressman confides they have the votes in the House to impeach Obama, but the crackpot cons should not be getting the hopes up.

“You tie into a question I get a lot: ‘If everyone’s so unhappy with the president’s done, why don’t you impeach him?’” [Rep. Blake] Farenthold continued. “I’ll give you a real frank answer about that: If we were to impeach the president tomorrow, you could probably get the votes in the House of Representatives to do it. But it would go to the Senate and he wouldn’t be convicted.”

The Texas congressman then described the impeachment process, mentioning the vote in the House and the trial in the Senate. Farenthold then said that the failed attempt to remove President Bill Clinton from office through the impeach process actually damaged the country.[...]

“What message do we sent to America if we impeach Obama and he gets away with what he’s impeached for and he is found innocent? What then do we say is OK?” the Congressman concluded. “Aside from the fact that it wouldn’t be effective, I think there’s some potential damage to society that would be done with a failed attempt at impeachment.”

Haven't seen any mention of what grounds he thinks they might conjure up for said impeachment. Pretty sure one of them isn't "we hate this black President so kick him out even though he legitimately won twice by a landslide."

But it's not just birthers who have the NRSC dancing on the thin edge of sharp knife. The Tea Party spawned a legion of big time grifters who are making a very good living bucking the establishment GOP and they know exactly what prime cuts of raw red meat to throw to their slavering base to keep them thirsting for more blood.

To which I say, please proceed... The more blood they draw, the weaker their chances are at the ballot box. We may yet be able to dislodge them from the broken gears of our government despite the shameless gerrymandering that allowed them to grind good governance to a halt for the last few years. [Think Progress image]

Hold your nose touting

How embarrassing for Mitch McConnell. Somebody managed to get a recording of a private telephone call made by his campaign manager.

In the recording, obtained by Economic Policy Journal, Jesse Benton — who ran Paul's successful 2010 campaign before joining McConnell's team — told conservative activist Dennis Fusaro that he has an ulterior motive in working the GOP leader's 2014 campaign.

"Between you an me, I'm sorta holding my nose for two years," Benton said in the recording, "'cause what we're doing here is gonna be a big benefit to Rand in '16."

And yes, it's real:

Benton confirmed the authenticity of the recording telling the Weekly Standard, "It is truly sick that someone would record a private phone conversation I had out of kindness and use it to try to hurt me."

I'm not comfortable with such invasions of privacy but must admit my extreme disgust with Mitch McConnell leaves me more amused by this than I probably should be.

Adding: Alec MacGillis was in Kentucky recently and discovered McConnell's trouble in Kentucky runs much deeper than just a reluctant campaign manager.

McConnell and Graham face Tea Party flack

Don't want to get my hopes up too high but it's not impossible that we could get rid of both Mitch McConnell and Lindsey Graham in 2014. To begin with, McConnell's Dem opponent Alison Grimes delivered a sharp blow to McConnell at the annual Fancy Farm hoedown in Kentucky. She's polling ahead of him already. Here's hoping that will hold.

More importantly, McConnell is facing a Republican primary challenger who speaks Teabonics and is likely to win over the hard core angry cons who demand purity. Could split enough of the GOP vote to give Grimes the win. One can dream anyway.

Meanwhile, Lindsey Graham now has a Tea Party challenger and she's a hot ticket. Nancy Mace, "a small business owner and the first female graduate of The Citadel," opened her candidacy with a fiery little speech:

"Washington thinks it knows better than the people," she said. "The federal government has worked its way into nearly every corner of our lives, trying to solve every problem for us. And yet, we are still not better off for it.”

She joins businessman Richard Cash in challenging the two-term senator for the GOP nomination. Republican State Sen. Lee Bright has also said he will run.

Not sure who to root for here. We can be sure a Republican is going to win the seat. Any one of these folks is likely to be even worse than Lindsey. Still, it might be worth it just so we don't ever have to listen to his pathetic pandering to the crackpot cons anymore.

Ditching Mitch McConnell

Let's face it. We're talking about Kentucky. Electing a Democrat to the Senate won't be easy but Grimes looks up to the challenge.

Kentucky Secretary of State Alison Lundergan Grimes announced Monday she will challenge Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.), giving Democrats their favored candidate and turning the race into one of the 2014 cycle's marquee contests.

She has a good pitch. Echoing the GOP's intention to use ageism as a weapon against Hillary, well, it could work both ways.

Lundergan Grimes stressed that she was Kentucky's "only female constitutional officer" and "the youngest secretary of state across the nation that is a female."

"Kentucky is tired of a senior senator who has lost touch with Kentucky issues, voters and their values," she said.

It's certainly not hopeless. The man is not popular.

"The Kentucky Senate race is now a toss up. Mitch McConnell is the most unpopular incumbent in the entire country. He is a relic of the past and a symbol of everything that is wrong with Washington. Kentuckians want a change," Cecil said, citing polling done for the committee that showed more than 60 percent of Kentucky voters disapprove of the senator's job performance.

All McConnell's got going for him is Obama Derangement Syndrome. He's going to play this as a vote against a rubber stamp for Obama. That could work for him but Grimes looks like a fighter and she has plenty of ammo. If she plays it right, she could capture the women's vote. Might be enough to swing a win. Stranger things have happened.

Bye bye Bachmann

By now you've heard Michelle Bachmann is calling it quits. That night she announced we won't have her to kick around in 2014. I have mixed feelings about it. Happy to have her crazy-eyed crackpottery out of our government but it is going to make it harder for the Democrats to win her district if the Republicans come up with any candidate even slightly less crazy who can string two sentences together coherently.

There's boatloads of commentary on Bachmann's departure. My favorite is Amanda Marcotte's delightful fisking of Michelle's goodbye speech. There's much speculation about her motives, but I agree with Steve M. I'm willing to bet the GOP leadership forced her out. Imagine she got word from on high that the party wasn't going to support her in the race, nor defend her against the investigations into her campaign chicanery.

Meanwhile, the bloggers whose stock is trade is wingnut snarkery, weep in sorrow to lose such an reliable source of material. [photo via Esquire]

Congresswoman Colbert from South Carolina

Yes I know I keep breaking my ignore the damnable polls rule, but the latest results showing Elizabeth Colbert Busch leading Mark Sanford by 9 points evokes visions of a liberal Democratic Congresscreature from South Carolina in my head. There's something I find deliciously weird and amusing about that.

Sure it's early and anything could change, but the other breakout numbers here that are worth noticing are these:

Although Sanford's unpopularity is clearly the main reason Democrats have a chance to win in this district, it's interesting to note that there is some backlash against Republicans over last week's vote on background checks. 86% of voters in the district say they support them to only 12% opposed, and 45% of voters say the GOP's opposition to them makes it less likely they'll support the party in the next election compared to only 21% who consider it a positive. That anger over the gun vote comes despite Barack Obama having only a 41% approval rating in the district with 51% of voters disapproving of him.

When they've lost the gun loving deluded rubes over gun safety reform, maybe that pathetic display of general cowardice and GOP obstruction on background checks will turn out to be the seminal moment that broke the Republicans' stranglehold on the House.

[Big thanks for the kind link at Mike's Blog Roundup and if you're not reading John Perr's other blog, well, you're missing some of the smartest analysis on the internets.]

Who is Progress KY

Serious question. While it's entirely possible they're just the world's most inept wannabe lefty anarchists, Progress KY feels more like a GOP front group every passing day. I mean, first the lame attack ads on the wife and then the lamebrain secret taping which they immediately bragged about pulling off. They're like Jimmy O'Keefe on whiskey and quaaludes.

Odd how everything they've done so far has been such a big help to Mitch.

The leak seems to have backfired, helping to strengthen McConnell in the state. Most of the focus has been on the FBI investigation into who bugged McConnell's office, and on Conway's comments about his discussions with Progress Kentucky's leaders.

The story has also given McConnell's allies a chance to tie the fringe group to Democrats in and outside of the state.

Moreover, they have no apparent talent for raising money, yet they managed to pay for the racist ads in the beginning and high powered legal counsel now. The investigation is likely to last until the 2014 election. The gift that keeps on giving -- to McConnell. Funny how that works.

Chain of fools

In the interests of my blood pressure, decided long ago to save my outrage for things that are clearly imminent. So I'm not all that exercised about Obama's new budget even though it's said to offer up the chained CPI on Social Security. Matt thinks it's dangerous but it's not scaring me yet. Looks like just another deal that isn't meant to happen.

It's a budget proposal. A political document that has more to do with messaging than policy. I do agree with Charlie Pierce though. Offering up yet another dismal grand bargain with these kind of optics is stupid politics and reinforces the false choices that should belong solely to the Republicans.

This is what Jim DeMint believes, after a few years in a sweet government job, from which he will derive a sweet government pension, and which enabled him to move sweetly into a quasi-governmental job at which he produces nothing at all except hot air. Nice work if you can get it. This is what they all believe. They believe that the problem with Social Security is that...it...works. This is why any economic compromise with these people is guaranteed to hurt all the wrong people.

I'm guessing the White House consultants decided Obama needed to piss off the liberals to appease the Village elders with a show of making tough choices. That may work. Twitter told me E.J. Dionne loved it. But the hundreds of millions of voters who get their news in 30 minutes on the teevee, all they're going to internalize is newscasters very seriously telling them -- again -- Obama wants to cut Social Security. After he and Joe explicitly promised not to touch Social Security. If there's some eleventy dimensional chess strategy here which leads to energizing the Democratic vote in 2014, I'm not seeing it.