Welcome to bizarro world, aka Kentucky's 2014 Republican primary, in which one of the main attacks being levied against Mitch McConnell is
that he's not actually conservative.
A conservative group is launching its first radio ad in Kentucky’s U.S. Senate race criticizing Republican Senator Mitch McConnell for his voting record.
Led by former Republican Congressman Jim Ryun, the Madison Project endorsed McConnell’s GOP primary opponent Matt Bevin last month, and is running what they say will be the first of many statewide ads against the incumbent.
It's a relatively small $30,000 ad buy, but the 60-second spot slams McConnell’s votes on immigration reform, Wall Street bailouts and the debt ceiling.
That last part is the key: It's not actually a huge ad buy. For some perspective, $30,000 is about 0.3% of Mitch McConnell's current
cash on hand. Nonetheless, his campaign's response was to unload on his primary challenger, Kentucky businessman Matt Bevin:
"All you need to know about this group is that they're supporting a tax delinquent bailout artist who lies on his resume over the most conservative Republican Leader in modern history," says McConnell campaign spokeswoman Allison Moore. "Apparently Matt Bailout Bevin has a small cadre of fringe friends in Washington who have concluded that conservative governance isn't half as important as making money off his quixotic Senate campaign even though polling shows Mitch winning by a staggering 68-21 margin."
Here's the thing: If Mitch McConnell and his aides really believe that he is inevitable, why do they feel the need to release
dubious polling to support their claim?
If they really believe that Matt Bevin is nothing more than gnat, why do they bother going into such histrionics about him in their statements?
If they really believe that Bevin is irrelevant, why isn't their attention focused on Alison Lundergan Grimes, the Democratic nominee?
The message that McConnell's campaign seems to want to send is that Matt Bevin doesn't matter. But the message that they are actually sending is that they are afraid of him. Very afraid.