McConnell would rather debate "Progress Kentucky" than his plans to destroy Ashley Judd
Now that it appears Mitch McConnell's "Whac-A-Mole"
strategy session wasn't recorded by the
Gestapo or even a Watergate-style bugging operation, but was instead taped through a door in the hallway by a nincompoop with a suspiciously incompetent anti-McConnell group, can we return to substance of what McConnell and his aides were talking about? In
a Sunday editorial, the
Louisville Courier-Journal offered a reminder of what that was:
The tape, as the political world now knows, included Kentucky’s senior senator describing his “Whac-A-Mole” approach to political rivals — “when anybody sticks their head up, do them out.” It also offers audio of staff laughing about the prospect of exploiting actress Ashley Judd’s bout with depression and childhood thoughts of suicide should she decide to run for U.S. Senate. (She didn’t.)
The contents of the audio are as despicable as they are damaging, leaving Mr. McConnell unable to defend them. Instead, he blustered he was the victim of “Watergate style” bugging by left-leaning enemies and demanded an FBI investigation.
Thus far, McConnell has managed to escape any serious criticism for having planned to use Ashley Judd's depression as a political weapon, but as eager as he is to play victim to the blithering idiocy of the "Progress Kentucky" clown show, it's hard to see how that is a winning strategy. In fact, McConnell's best strategy is the one
he outlined in the meeting:
I assume most of you have played the, the game Whac-A-Mole?” (Laughter.) This is the Whac-A-Mole period of the campaign…when anybody sticks their head up, do them out.
McConnell will win if he doesn't get a serious opponent. If he does get a serious opponent, his strategy will be to destroy them. And if he can't destroy them, he'll try to run against President Obama. But the one thing Mitch McConnell can't do is run on his record, and the tape clearly shows he's aware of that fact.