So I've written before about how the Kentucky Tea Party is gearing up to primary challenge Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R. KY) in the upcoming 2014 GOP primary. Despite McConnell being endorsed by Tea Party darling and Keebler Elf lookalike, Senator Rand Paul (R. KY) and Tea Party Congressman Thomas Massie (R) declining to challenge McConnell, that's still not going to stop the Tea Party from going after the obstructionist turtle:
http://www.wfpl.org/...
A coalition of more than a dozen Tea Party groups in Kentucky are issuing a stern warning to Senate Republican Leader Mitch McConnell against co-opting the grassroots movement — and they plan to draft a challenger for the 2014 Senate primary.
The United Kentucky Tea Party is made up of several independent organizations from across the state. In a press release sent late Monday evening, the group says that McConnell and state Republicans are being "intellectually dishonest" by calling anyone with the GOP leader's campaign personnel a tea party leader.
"What I can tell you is we have a battle plan that we’re executing and to date that plan is working better than we expected. And our goal is to have a primary challenger for Sen. McConnell,” said John Kemper, a spokesman for United Kentucky Tea Party. - WFPL News, 89.3 FM, 1/22/13
Even though McConnell hired Rand Paul's campaign strategist, John Kemper and his Tea Party army aren't buying it:
Kemper, who ran for state auditor in 2011, confirmed with WFPL that he is on a short-list of candidates who would take on McConnell in a primary.
He says the national media doesn't always understand how the state groups work, adding that many tea party organizations around the country have contacted United Kentucky Tea Party and have shown interest in supporting a primary challenger if they can meet specific goals.
"I welcome any of them to talk to the tea party's in Kentucky," he says. "We're talking to folks all over the country who'd like to support a challenger to Sen. McConnell. They’re just waiting to see how we do here on the ground with our plan and they’re ready to step in if we meet certain thresholds. As this goes forward it should build momentum and it’ll be interesting." - WFPL News, 89.3 FM, 1/22/13
Ahhhh, karma is a bitch, ain't it? I really hope these teabaggers succeed in taking down Mitch because then it would make the race easier for our dream candidate. McConnell knows that teabaggers are coming for him hence why his campaign is kicking it into Alex Jones mode and sent out this email scaring his supporters into believing that Obama is going to take away their guns:
Dear Patriot,
You and I are literally surrounded.
The gun-grabbers in the Senate are about to launch an all-out-assault on the Second Amendment. On your rights.
On your freedom.
Just the other night, President Obama urged them to act. And then he went one step further, spelling out the 23 different Executive Orders he will take to get your guns.
My friend, our freedom is under direct assault.
From those who want take your guns. From those who want to shred our Constitution, and as our good in friend Rand Paul from Kentucky says, from those who want to be King.
Let me tell you, Mitch McConnell is ready to lead the fight to protect your rights.
Will you stand with Mitch today?
Our Founders fought a revolution to secure our rights. They would have been appalled by what they heard from an American president the other day.
President Obama has the left wing media in a frenzy. And, like his old Chief of Staff, he is determined to not waste a crisis.
The gun-grabbers are in full battle mode. And they are serious.
What’s at stake?
There are almost too many schemes to list. But President Obama’s worst center around:
-The Feinstein Gun Ban, which will criminalize firearms by how they look.
-A thinly-veiled national gun registration scheme hidden under the guise
of “background checks” to ensure federal government minders gain
every bureaucratic tool they need for full-scale confiscation.
-An outright BAN on magazines holding more than 10 rounds.
-And that’s not even close to the end of it.
23 new Executive Orders.
It is almost hard to believe the sheer breadth and brazenness of this attempt to gut our Constitution.
Well, Mitch McConnell is not going to stand aside.
Mitch McConnell will stand and fight. He will lead the Senate Republicans against this unconstitutional agenda, and with your help, we will prevail.
But Mitch can’t do it alone.
That’s why I am asking you to sign the attached Defense of the Second Amendment pledge today to show that you stand with me in this vital fight.
Friend, from his very first run for office, Leader McConnell has always stood strong for your gun rights. Like you and me, he firmly believes that the Second Amendment protects YOU as an individual.
And, he absolutely will not let president Obama or the Senate Democrats take that right away from us.
So please help him fight back today.
For Freedom,
Jesse Benton
Campaign Manager
Sen. Mitch McConnell
P.S. President Obama and his allies are committed to eroding your Constitutional freedoms. Please sign your pledge TODAY to let him know that we stand with Mitch McConnell in opposing this gun grab.
Cue Congressman John Yarmuth (D. KY-3) to call out McConnell's bull shit:
http://fatlip.leoweekly.com/...
“This to me is pretty much as low as you can go in terms of being irresponsible as a public official. He knows that’s not true, he’s making it up, and he’s using it for his own political benefit.” - Louisville Eccentric Observer, 1/20/13
Now I never thought I would say this but McConnell supporters should be scared of gun grabbers because McConnell, for a while now, is one of them. That's right, McConnell has long supported regulation of firearms. He supported the 1991 Crime Bill S.1241 sponsored by then Senator Joe Biden (D. DE) that called for a national waiting period for handgun purchases as well as a federal ban on semi-automatic firearms:
http://www.senate.gov/...
He also voted for Senator Barbara Boxer's (D. CA) Trigger Lock Amendment 3230 in 1998 that required the purchase of a trigger lock with the sale of each handgun:
http://www.senate.gov/...
So yeah, the Tea Party does fear of gun grabbers hence why they want to give McConnell the boot. By the way, while the Tea Party is getting ready to take down McConnell, Ashley Judd is still heavily looking into running for Senate:
http://www.cbsnews.com/...
Ashley Judd is "taking a close look" at mounting a Senate bid against Minority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., the actress and activist said over the weekend.
"The people of Kentucky need a fighter," Judd said Saturday, the Louisville Courier-Journal reports. "And certainly going back 10 generations, I've got some fighters from those hills in my family."
Judd was in Washington over the inaugural weekend and was honored at the Kentucky Society's Bluegrass Ball on Saturday for her humanitarian work. Judd, who appeared in movies like "Kiss the Girls" and "Where the Heart Is," has been active in campaigns against violence against women and campaigns to prevent diseases such as malaria. Courier-Journal columnist James Bruggers also notes she's outspoken in her opposition to mountaintop removal mining, setting her apart from most other Kentucky politicians who are allied with the state's mining industry. - CBS News, 1/22/13
You're right Miss Judd, Kentucky does need a fighter and I personally think your the best woman for the job. Hopefully we'll be hearing your decision soon.