Mitch McConnell hires Jesse Benton to run his 2014 re-election bid

[specsaregood]

After giving alot of money to the RP campaing, it really grinds my gears in how they just quit in the spring when we were heating up and how Benton took over a half-million for his sh!tty work.

If you want people to take you seriously then you shouldn't repeat debunked smears. Benton did not take over half a million dollars. When you have to rely on untruths to make your point then your point isn't one worth making.

 

[orenbus]

Lets see how many campaign errors, mis-communications, poorly timed announcements, damaging emails etc.. occur while he's running MM's campaign.

At the very least it will be fun to watch.

 

[Carlybee]

They co-opted our tea party, and now they want to co-opt what's left of the grassroots. Anyone who thinks this is a good thing has NOT been paying attention.

This is exactly what is happening and we need to say not on our watch.

 

[ScotTFO]

I wouldn't support Ron Paul himself should he run for any kind of office and include Benton in his campaign.

Also as mentioned above, no I am not cut out for partisan politics, I won't argue that. I've had enough with trying to fit in or change any of the parties. Ron Paul made a career of not playing partisan politics and it's something that I strongly admire and believe in.

 

[georgiaboy]

Here's a question: Does Mitch think that in order to keep his seat in 2014, he has to have the votes of the tea party crowd? That if he doesn't, the Dem challenger might just beat him? That a Libertarian might enter the race and siphon off his margin?

If that's the case, and Mitch isn't able to garner enough tea party votes (if I were in KY and the election were today, he wouldn't get mine), why wouldn't the KY GOP be considering primarying Mitch from the right?

If the GOP gets a majority in the Senate, even with Mitch out of the picture, there will be another majority leader to come along behind him.

Does the increasingly tea party KY GOP really want to risk a Senate seat to one as non-tea party as Mitch?

 

[brandon]

Unfortunately this does mean that it's very very unlikely Massie will challenge him. I'd love someone credible to challenge and beat both of them though.

 

[jbauer]

I don't care about rhetoric. Our goal should be to force Mitch to retire, and get somebody in there who will vote with us.

mehhh...I think if we're to become mainstream we need to start knocking out lower end anti-liberty people. 1st its easier, 2nd it costs less, 3rd it makes us look like legitimate Republicans so when Rand runs in 16 WE are the mainstream.

 

[libertyjam]

What is completely ironic is the apparent impression by an establishment DC insider that anyone in the Tea Party would give any care to anything that Benton says or does. The whole thing is just pathetically hilarious.

 

[angelatc]

At the very least it will be fun to watch.

After thinking about it, I suspect this is as much about Rand as it is Benton. In that position, Benton will be making political contacts that he can bring back to Rand's 2016 campaign. I wonder when he's going to visit Israel?

 

[CaptLouAlbano]

I wouldn't support Ron Paul himself should he run for any kind of office and include Benton in his campaign.

Also as mentioned above, no I am not cut out for partisan politics, I won't argue that. I've had enough with trying to fit in or change any of the parties. Ron Paul made a career of not playing partisan politics and it's something that I strongly admire and believe in.

He did, and it took him his entire career before getting any major notoriety and bringing change to the system. Do we want to wait around another 20+ years or do we wish to keep gaining ground and getting more like-minded men and women elected to public office?

Libertarians are a minority within the GOP, so we can either stand alone in our little corner or we can work alongside people that we may not agree with on every issue. Ron Paul chose the former, spending the majority of his career alone and accomplishing little by way of advancing his agenda. Rand and the others we have in Congress are taking a different approach.

 

[angelatc]

mehhh...I think if we're to become mainstream we need to start knocking out lower end anti-liberty people. 1st its easier, 2nd it costs less, 3rd it makes us look like legitimate Republicans so when Rand runs in 16 WE are the mainstream.

Oh sure. But You can bet that McConnell saw how close Reid came to losing his seat, and is moving to divide the TEA Party now, before they've drafted a candidate. Can't wait to see the LPAC sending McConnell cash!

ETA: There will be a backlash when Romney loses. McConnell is pulling up anchor to weather the storm.

 

[jbauer]

Are you fucking people out of your mind? Mitch McConnell is the scum of the earth. He is reaching out to voters. He isn't reaching out to any tea party or liberty positions. He would never vote for a Fed audit or bringing the troops home or even cutting any domestic spending. He is a true piece of shit. I don't care if Ron himself went to go work for him, it would be worth it to try to get him out of office.

Really? Exactly how many of Ron's 2M supporters even know the name of the guy who ran the campaign? Very few.

How many are going to know that Benton ran Ron's and Mitches campaign? Even fewer

How many out there that aren't living and breathing politics can name one campaign manager from ANY race over the past 50 years? Even fewer

The only people that even give a rats arse about this is the diehards and those absorbed in politics.

 

[RonRules]

From Wiki:
"During his entire political career, the top three industries donating to McConnell have been: Lawyers ($1.5 million), Securities and Investments ($1.5 million), and Health Professionals ($1.4 million)."

 

[libertyjam]

Lets see how many campaign errors, mis-communications, poorly timed announcements, damaging emails etc.. occur while he's running MM's campaign.

My bet is on a lot fewer, and then it will be spun as it was part of JB's 'learning curve'.

 

[jbauer]

Oh sure. But You can bet that McConnell saw how close Reid came to losing his seat, and is moving to divide the TEA Party now, before they've drafted a candidate. Can't wait to see the LPAC sending McConnell cash!

If LPAC sends Mitch money I'm done sending them money. Thats for darn sure.

The writing was on the wall that Benton's days with the Liberty movment were over. He's ducking and running to the nearest thing he can find to a job. The only thing that sucks is he probably took the emails with so we're all going to get spamed by Mitch.

I see this move as addtion by subtraction. I'm all for it.

 

[orenbus]

Really? Exactly how many of Ron's 2M supporters even know the name of the guy who ran the campaign? Very few.

How many are going to know that Benton ran Ron's and Mitches campaign? Even fewer

How many out there that aren't living and breathing politics can name one campaign manager from ANY race over the past 50 years? Even fewer

The only people that even give a rats arse about this is the diehards and those absorbed in politics.

The activists and the volunteers care, you can't win an election without someone out there working for free for you, those are the people that help reach out to others to get the funding needed to reach the millions you mention and get out the vote on election day.

 

[Carlybee]

He did, and it took him his entire career before getting any major notoriety and bringing change to the system. Do we want to wait around another 20+ years or do we wish to keep gaining ground and getting more like-minded men and women elected to public office?

Libertarians are a minority within the GOP, so we can either stand alone in our little corner or we can work alongside people that we may not agree with on every issue. Ron Paul chose the former, spending the majority of his career alone and accomplishing little by way of advancing his agenda. Rand and the others we have in Congress are taking a different approach.

You may find yourself standing without Ron Paul's base if your goal is to become the mainstream. However the agendas here are becoming blatently apparent. We will fight this one way or another.

 

[ScotTFO]

He did, and it took him his entire career before getting any major notoriety and bringing change to the system. Do we want to wait around another 20+ years or do we wish to keep gaining ground and getting more like-minded men and women elected to public office?

Libertarians are a minority within the GOP, so we can either stand alone in our little corner or we can work alongside people that we may not agree with on every issue. Ron Paul chose the former, spending the majority of his career alone and accomplishing little by way of advancing his agenda. Rand and the others we have in Congress are taking a different approach.

I absolutely understand your stance on this and am not by any means trying to say that my method is any better. In fact a combination of both could also be helpful.

With that being said though, yes it took 20 years for Ron Paul message to gain steam, but look at it now. More people are opening their eyes to it than every and even still while he is not in the running anymore. At this point I think by playing nice with any establishment party we'd only be taking steps backwards. I think now my focus will be more on trying to make sure there's relavant 3rd parties and educating people on who they are and why they should be voting for them. If there's someone running within the Republican party that I think can make some real change, then I will support them. Though when you start seeing who is in bed with who, and there's someone who left a bad taste in your mouth, for someone like me it makes it impossible for me to take them seriously.

 

[The Gold Standard]

Then my guess is you are going to be really pissed if and when Rand campaigns for him. Chances of that occurring are pretty strong.

Like I mentioned earlier, I don't think some folks are cut out for partisan politics, and what it takes to build a coalition and grow a movement within the party. Pretty much everything that has occurred outside of the Ron Paul campaign has pissed off most of the people on this site. Whether it is this Benton story, or Rand's endorsement, Bill's endorsement, Rand speaking at FreePac, Rand going on Hannity, Ted Cruz backing Romney, the platform inclusions, etc, etc, etc -- every one of these stories gets a similar response from the majority of folks on here.

I don't care what Rand does. That is up to him and he can deal with the consequences.

As far as coalitions go, it seems many of you want to parrot what Ron says about them, but you have no idea what he meant. Building coalitions means working with others on issues YOU AGREE ON. Like working with Kucinich on bringing the troops home. Or working with Kucinich on a Fed audit even though they have totally different ideas about monetary policy. You work with those people to gain support for actual legislation that would do some good.

Ron never went out and campaigned for Kucinich, because much of what he believes in is disgusting to us. Hiding your liberty positions to blend in the Republican party is not a coalition. Is warmonger McConnell going to suddenly vote to end these wars because Rand campaigns for him? Of course not. He voted for Rand's budget because he knew it had no chance to pass, but now he can hold that over the heads of the gullible.

Again, a coalition, as Ron uses the term, is working with different people on issues YOU AGREE ON. A coalition is not hiding what you believe in to make friends with people you don't agree with.

 

[orenbus]

The only thing that sucks is he probably took the emails with so we're all going to get spamed by Mitch.

I wonder if you can sue or at least report some violation like can-spam laws.