Associated Press
Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) issued a polite statement yesterday congratulating President Obama on his second inauguration, and it included much of the language one might expect. McConnell "wishes him well" and hopes the new term represents a "fresh start when it comes to dealing with the great challenges of our day."
This message from McConnell's office on Monday bore little resemblance to the message from McConnell's office on Sunday. Joe Sonka reported on an appeal sent on Sunday by McConnell's 2014 campaign manager.
"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."
This truly unhinged message went on to condemn "executive orders" that don't exist in our reality and rejected the idea of universal background checks -- an idea that enjoys overwhelming, bipartisan public support -- as a "thinly-veiled national gun registration scheme" intended to "ensure federal government minders gain every bureaucratic tool they need for full-scale confiscation."
If this nonsense came from some fringe activist group, it'd merely be a shame. But when the Minority Leader of the United States Senate is directly associated with hyperbolic garbage like this, it's far more troubling.
As Rep. John Yarmuth (D-Ky.) told Sonka about McConnell's email, "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."
Look, I'm well aware of the nature of fundraising messages. They are, by design, excessive and inflammatory. The whole point of the appeals is to scare the bejesus out of like-minded allies, in the hopes that they'll run for their checkbooks to prevent an evil bogeyman from destroying all they hold dear.
But in case McConnell has forgotten, he's in a position of power and authority, and with that comes some obligations. Among them: making at least some effort to be responsible when communicating with the public.
With this in mind, when McConnell's office lies to his own supporters and throws around ridiculous conspiracy theories, it diminishes his office, while undermining the discourse.
As for the Minority Leader's hopes for a "fresh start," that's not a bad idea. Maybe he can help get the president's second term off to a good start by distancing himself from his own campaign's offensive fundraising messages.
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Yeah, those no good dirty gun grabbers!
Sons of #@%#^es!
Grabbing my gun makes me very angry, I'm a gonna donate my next week's food money to Mitch's re-election campaign! Shyt, I'll just go out and hunt me some possum for grub next week.
I'll just use some of that ammo I've been saving for those lame-ass Gun Grabbers! -Kevo
You hit the target of that message dead on.
If people can manage not to drool in public, then why can they not drum up just enough intelligence to discern their emotional chains are being continually pulled.
That's Francis Bacon. Those words deserve some quiet contemplation. But the quick message is that the audience for McConnell and the NRA is a coalition of uneducated, unthoughtful, easily-manipulated and highly-inflammable voters, and they're one-man/one-vote just like the rest of us. McConnell knows that. Makes me want to tear my hair out sometimes.
I have a good question for all of you teabagger gun-nuts ; " If you all are so against progressiveness , Why would you all be going wild and buying up some of the most advanced and progressed weapons that have ever been made to this day ? " also " Why not just stick to the old traditional weapons such as muzzle-loaders seeings that you all are so hell bent on your supposed traditional beliefs ? "
I read this letter with disgust and anger. The people of KY should be ashamed of this corrupt sleazeball. To try and capitalize on peoples' fears like this is lower than low, beyond the pale, and a disservice to all who have served the state of KY.
I plan on emailing his office shortly to let him know what a pathetic man he is and that I am going to do everything in my power next election to have him removed from office so that we may put someone in the Senate that represents KY, not their financial masters.
LOL. Al Gore just capitalized big time on other people's fears. Cause you know that if we don't outlaw breathing and hydrocarbons we're all going to die in five years from global something. What a riot.
Yeah, climate change is really a riot.
Wait, Shooter just admitted he doesn't believe that Dem's want to grab guns. He equated McConnell's message to Gore's about global warming implying that Global warming is not a real crisis and Gore is just fear mongering. Ergo, McConnell is just fear mongering and the gun grab is not real.
Welcome brother, you've seen the light, albeit likely inadvertently.
How much does it cost to run a state wide election campaign? You are shocked that McConnell would come out with something like this? You nave never seen fundraisers on the left don't come up with similar off the wall messages? Give me a break.
What this email says to me is we need campaign finance reform.
Only "minor parties" should be able to use any private money. Here, a minor party is one that failed to get 20% of the vote in 40% on the states.
Major parties (all the rest) should use only public money.
This would be cheaper than the current system where big doners expect to get 10 times their donation back in gov. money, tax breaks or pork barrel spending, etc. But, mainly it would level the playing field so the voters would decide which way the gov. should go.
That said-- John Toller, who now also believes FDR had pre-knowledge of Pearl Harbor, says that the census records were used to round up the west coast Japanese Americans in WWII. IF confiscation ever happens the gov. will use all the info it can get its hands on to be sure they get all they can. That is just the way all gov. work.
Ron: That reeks with guilt, your false equivalency nonsense about ads. Conservatives have a rich history of gun scare tactics, and if you are honest you will simply admit that instead of trying to muddy the waters and change the subject.
The DIFFERENCE is when the DEMS use hyperbolic, over the top language the GOP attacks that they aren't being 'conciliatory'...When the GOP does it then it's PROTECTING YOUR RIGHTS...even when it's a big fat lie.
It isn't false equivalency. It is real equivalency. Fundraisers are fundraisers. They all say what they think their funders what to hear. Lots and lots of people on the far left are more than willing to demonize people on the right, yourself included.
Ron: By all means, lets hear some comparable Democrat ads that are in the same ballpark, I'm all ears. What I will not stand for is the false equivalency between me, a schmuck on the internet, and Mitch McConnell, the Minority Leader in the Senate.
Lebowsky, the difference between you and the Minority Leader of the Senate is that I hold you in much higher regard.
That may be true Ron, but please with that in mind point out the last left fundraiser request that had inflammatory information in it. Hell, for that matter point out the last time a left leaning media personal said anything even remotely as inflammatory as Limbaugh or O'Reiley, Hannity, Cavutu, Michael Savage et al. I'm so sick of this "both sides do it" rhetoric so lets point to a different problem. It's like presenting climate change as a 50-50 argument because some lunatic fringe on the right doesn't buy it. I'm sorry but even if some Democrats/Liberals are as inflammatory as those on the right it is nowhere near the level as on the right and should not be presented as such.
Right. The left never says anything inflammatory like Republicans are going to throw Grandma off a cliff, or electing Bush is like being a black man dragged behind a truck. Oh no, the left would never do something so vile. Heh.
And the winner of the award for missing the point. . . Shooter. My point wasn't that it is never uttered on the left my point was that it is presented as a 50-50 split and it's not.
I haven't got time to do the research right now, but as a card carrying progressive who gives money to Democratic candidates and causes, I can tell you that I have encountered over the top fundraising messages from people on the left. If you haven't you must not give much money.
Somedays I am afraid we are creating our own echo chamber. This post reminds me more of something I might see on Fox and Friends than read on Maddowblog. It certainly isn't up to Steve Benen's high standards.
That said, I recognize that there is little, if any, truth in McConnell's message. I am just shocked that people around here don't recognize that sometimes our fundraisers go over the top.
I will be honest, I do not get fundraising requests so if it's common there I wouldn't know. My point was more about indicating the lack of extreme rhetoric on the left's media front. I mean the rhetoric from Maddow, Hayes, Klein etc is nowhere near the rhetoric you hear from O'Reiley, Hannity, Limbaugh.
Ron: Thats another glaring false equivalency, trying to compare Steve Benen who posts factual information to Fox and Friends. McConnells "gun grab" letter is not comparable in honesty to anything I have seen from Democrats. There is a world of difference between outright lies and fudging.
OK I'm curious. What kind of rhetoric do those righty guys spew that's so awful?
Shooter, they spew out a lot of crap. There was a book written by some guy named Ann Coulter accusing Democrats of being traitors. You might have read it. I found it particularly offensive, but very standard Republican crap. One clown who ran for Congress in the last election said that between 89 and 91 Democratic members of Congress were Communists. (Or something like that.) He damn near won. I could go on, but that would make people think that they are right when they claim that nobody on the left sends out over the top fundraising letters.
Shooter, did you even see the video villifying armed protection for the President's daughters? They are not more important than anyone elses's children, but they are high-profile targets for kidnapping. While the ad itself wasn't a fundraiser for a specific politician, it was intended as a fundraiser for the NRA which gives big $$ to politicians who will champion their cause.
Crickets.
Regarding the armed protection at school, conservatives aren't villifying it, they want to have the same protection for their children.
Well Sh!tter, when one of their parents becomes President, they will get the same protection. Of course, they wouldn't need so much protection if it wasn't for people (and I use the term loosely) like you, Potty, and Defective.
There is a car commercial with a man rolling a little snowball down hill. It becomes larger and larger and LARGER. . .
So too, is November's mandate gathering speed. And the Right sees it coming. "
Women and childrenPolitician's first!"Isn't that why we're out looking for "earth-like" planets, rather than make any effort to save the one we're on, to ensure the continuation of humanity by sending the greedy rich and numbass politicians out into space?
Oh, wait...
I think we can expect more like this from Sen. McConnell. And there's a simple, four word reason for this:Twenty Fourteen Primary Challenge. Sen. McConnell is really, really worried about sounding too reasonable to the TP base. So he's burnishing his credentials as a proponent of far-right fantasies.
Afraid for his own base. Now that sounds like a true leader of men and swine?
sandyh - It's more like "afraid of his base" - that a primary challenger might remove him....Course I do agree about being "a leader of swine", that's McTurtle alright.....
You get the idea that all the Republicans did at their three-day retreat was drink large quantities of alcohol and smoke stuff they swear will fry other people's brains. This is the best the GOP could come up with for their new vision and appeal to the changing demographic of voters?
Those that can't get beyond the past end up being dumped there by posterity.
Republicans are quick to pass voter ID laws which are nothing but background checks on voters. The same people they say they are trying to keep out of the voting booth can walk into a gun show, buy an AR-15 assault style rifle without checking sh!t. Something stinks.
That sounds like a valid trade. Voter ID's required everywhere and backround checks on all gun sales. Good idea, and should be doable.
First of all Shooter, the right wing fringe element gun worshipers have no leverage so they are in no position to make demands regarding background checks. The adults are in charge now.
I'm game Shooter. Voter ID required in every state in every polling place in the union. Coupled with this law we will have massive funding for DMV's and other places from which people can get ID's. Funding sufficient to allow hospitals and other entities to talk to one another so that Grandma who lives in Northern Vermont but was born in Alabama can get a BC necessary to get an ID. A massive media push by the government and states to inform voters of how to get ID's. Busses that travel to nursing homes as roving voter ID/voter registration units designed to get everyone up to speed and ready to vote.
If we think fraud is a problem lets fix it but lets be honest about what we're trying to accomplish. If voter ID is only about fraud then everything I suggested should be a no brainer. We want EVERYONE to vote who is legally permitted to vote, lets make it as easy as possible and get those pesky 10 people who voted illegally in the last 13 years prevented okay.
Facts don't matter when you've got those emotional appeals. Lessee: Vasectomies are legal; they're coming to get your balls. Lobotomies are possible; they're coming to get your brains. What does that give you? It gives you a clone of Mitch McConnell.
Republicans want a conservative oligarchy ruling this nation instead of supporting a Republic where voters have a say. With every voter suppression and gerrymandering scheme they put into the works, the stronger the opposition will grow.
Republicans never look long term. They would rather hold onto power for two more years in some small way rather than allow the country to grow and prosper. They must increasingly appeal the basest of elements in society to stay in power and oh does it ever show.
It's become so obvious to too many of their once loyal members...who all call themselves Independents now. How long will it take to convert all of these people to being life-long Democratic voters? How about those now reaching voting age who never heard of Goldwater or Reagan?
Is there anyone in the Hispanic community who would vote for those who allow gun nuts to pursue them on the streets like vigilantes?
Any parents of small children who would vote for those who continue to push for the rights of the mentally ill to carry arms?
Any returning vet or recent graduate who can't find a decent, middle class standard of living job vote for a party that insists that the rich must have foreign tax havens and outsource more American industries?
It's easy to ID the crackpots who are holding up this nation's progress and not doing anything to fix REAL problems.
Agree, and they have a band of voters who actually believe that if Republicans do gain a permanent majority, the loyal voters will be Teacher's Pet of the wealthy and power-laden and share in the glory and riches...
...in spite of the living examples across the globe of how that never really seems to work.
Mitch McConnell is afraid of the mythical Gun-Grabbers, Constitution-Shredders, and King-Makers? I used to be afraid of fire-breathing dragons and giants on beanstalks, but then I grew up.
Bet you were afraid of clowns too, until you found out they've all been rounded up and sent to the red sides of aisles in DC and your state capitol.
Those right-wing politicians make Pennyworth seem like a nice guy.
McConnell's letter is irresponsible. But it shows how he is positioning himself because he knows he will be primaried and he wants to move as far to the right as possible now. Ironically, what will happen is that some right-wing loon will win the nomination and even Kentucky will vote for a Democratic senator. (See: Indiana or Missouri 2012).
nobody should be surprise
To conservatives, extremists, and zealots of every religion and faction: Let go and let God! You were wrong about the Civil War... it's over, you lost, now let it go! You were wrong about Women Suffragettes... it's over, you lost, now let it go! You were wrong about Civil Rights... it's over, you lost, now let it go! You were wrong about Roe v. Wade... it's over, you lost, now let it go! You are wrong about Marriage Equality... it's over, you are losing, now let it go! You are wrong about Gun Control, as we now have 5 branches of Military and no longer need militia Minute Men... it's over, you will lose, now let it go! Only a zealot man with blindly ignorant convictions would deny the definitive pattern here! It's over, you lost, now let it go!
The GOP's new Mantra:
McConnell's stuff? ...entirely expected. It's precisely the same kind of thing that huckabee does in nearly all of his 'newsflash' and 'donation' requests -- pick a narrowly focused element -- wholly out of context -- from some speech somewhere, blow specific elements entirely out of proportion to the larger context, sow fear-doubt-suspicion, end with glowing assurance that he, personally, will rectify everything for the low-low price of 5, 10, or $25 from his 'exclusive supporters' (read: you). -AND- you may get to see your name next to his, on some kind of petition or registration list somewhere. Perhaps you thought that no one could top the Gingrich scam machine? Meet the new on-line carnival barkers...